South African Miner Claims Police Abuse

September 01, 2012 from Channel 4 News

A South African miner arrested for an alleged murder claims he was abused and tortured by police. Complaints of police brutality are surfacing in relation to the shooting of 34 miners at the Marikana mine in August. South African authorities are using a law last used in the apartheid era to bring murder charges against the 270 miners involved in the unrest.

(more) (less)

In This Video

Police brutality

Police brutality is the abuse of authority by the unwarranted infliction of excessive force by personnel involved in various aspects of law enforcement while in performance of their official duties. The term is also applied to abuses by corrections personnel in municipal, stat... Explore this topic

Marikana miners' strike

The Marikana miners' strike or Lonmin strike was a wildcat strike at a mine owned by Lonmin in the Marikana area, close to Rustenburg, South Africa in 2012. The event garnered international attention following a series of violent incidents between the South African Police Serv... Explore this topic

South African Police

The South African Police was the national police force in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the de facto police force in the territory of South-West Africa from 1939 to 1981. During South Africa's rule under apartheid, the SAP operated in close conjunction with South Afri... Explore this topic

South Africa

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres of coastline. To the north lie the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mo... Explore this topic

Miner

A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two conceptions as to what this includes. In its narrowest understanding, "miners" are solely those persons who work at the face cutting, blasting, or otherwise working and r... Explore this topic

South Africa under apartheid

n/a Explore this topic

Julius Malema

Julius Sello Malema is a South African politician, and the former president of the African National Congress Youth League. Malema occupies a notably controversial position in South African public and political life; having risen to prominence with his support for African Natio... Explore this topic

Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU)

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union was formed in Mpumalanga, South Africa, in 1998 as a breakaway faction of the COSATU-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers. It was formally registered as a union in 2001. According to Mining Weekly, the union sees itself... Explore this topic

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, or reef, which forms the mineralized package of economic interest to the miner. Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal and oil shale, gemstones,... Explore this topic

Strike

Strike action, also called labor strike, on strike, greve, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the Industrial Revolution, when mas... Explore this topic

Also See

Police brutality

Marikana miners' strike

South African Police