Episode 108 - IS RAMAPHOSA RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY FOR THE MARIKANA MASSACRE?

A debate that's never been settled- and perhaps never will- is
whether or not president Cyril Ramaphosa is liable for the deaths
of 34 mineworkers in August 2012.





He was a director of Lonmin, the mining company the workers
worked for. In a series of emails with other leaders of the
company, Ramaphosa described the mineworkers strike action as
"dastardly criminal" and he promised to convey that sentiment to
the security cluster within government so that "concomitant
action" could be taken.





A court found that there is no evidence in these Lonmin emails of
Ramaphosa being liable for murderous action, either directly
intentionally so or in terms of foreseeing the murder of the
workers.





But, as News24 specialist legal reporter Karyn Maughan points out
(
https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/ramaphosa-has-case-to-answer-on-marikana-collusion-but-not-on-murder-of-miners-court-rules-20220705-2
) this leaves open the question of whether, in terms of legal
causation, the president may yet be liable for pressuring the
police brass in a manner that resulted in the miners'deaths,
setting the scene for them using excessive, lethal force. 





I invited Karyn to explain, explore and debate this particular
complexity.





We also asked a crucial non-legal question- even if Mr Ramaphosa
is legally not liable in any way for the Marikana massacre, does
he bear any other kind of responsibility, morally or politically?
After all, legal questions do not exhaust range of questions
about responsibility. 





Enjoy