An inquiry commissioned by the state established the company did not provide "sufficient safeguards and measures to ensure the safety of its employees" and that its "failure to deliver on its housing obligations created an environment conducive to the creation of tension". Furthermore, it "did not use its best endeavours to resolve a dispute", and had urged the state to respond to the protests as a criminal issue, rather than a labour issue. The company aggressively lobbied the state to, in the words of its CEO, "bring the full might of the state to bear on the situation". The current president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa—then board member and shareholder at Lonmin—pressed for "concomitant action" against the "criminal" protesters.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) establish that companies, as part of their responsibility to respect human rights, should provide for or cooperate in the remediation of adverse impacts which they have caused or contributed to. Since 2012, Lonmin and its successor Sibanye-Stillwater have undertaken various initiatives to support the families of the 44 deceased. These initiatives included the provision of houses for widows, the establishment of a trust fund to support the education of orphaned children, and the provision of employment to relatives of those killed. The company also engaged in annual commemorations and constructed a memorial wall within company facilities bearing the names of the 44 victims.

Although these initiatives have provided some relief to victims, they have resulted in disputes, as well as re-victimisation for some. Promised houses were systematically delayed; policy to assign them was unclear, and many were built in places where families did not want to live. Others insisted the provision of employment was not acceptable as "even the work they gave us, we use our strength". The "Wall of Remembrance" was also controversial due to its form and location in an area where victims and their families could not freely access

This Op-Ed was originally published by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

• The origin, context and development of transitional justice
• Victims, victimology and transitional justice
• Prosecutions for abuses and gross violations of human rights
• Truth commissions
• Transitional justice and local justice
• Gender, political economy and transitional justice
• Apology, reconciliation and the politics of memory

The book contains chapter contributions by various CSVR staff that draws on their theoretical and practical experience in the field.

This reopened inquest presented an important window for truth recovery and justice for Timol's family who battled since 2003 to reopen the case in the face of years of inaction by the NPA. This case also has great significance for the families of victims of unresolved cases of torture and murder during the apartheid period, and whose cases have been neglected for many years. The Timol case is significant as it has opened up an opportunity for the families to learn about what happened to loved ones and finally begin the process of healing and closure. This decision is deeply disconcerting as it suggests that the NPA has once again lost the appetite to pursue justice in the name of victims.

These cases represent an important unresolved legacy of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There were many apartheid perpetrators who did not come forward to apply for amnesty or who were unwilling to disclose the truth and who came forward but were denied amnesty as they had not made full disclosure or told the truth. The families of their victims have been waiting patiently for justice to take its course.  Even though the TRC presented the NPA with over 300 cases that deserved further investigation and potential prosecution, hardly any have been pursued.

The NPA has a constitutional obligation to pursue such cases and has repeatedly neglected this duty largely due to political interference as stated in court papers explaining its failure to act. Victims' families have had to pursue justice without state assistance. The decision to now drop criminal charges in a case where a judge has explicitly instructed such prosecution presents a new low point in the NPA's treatment of victims of human rights violations.

The NPA's reasons for dropping charges included: "Factors such as the passage of time – 46 years at the time of their evidence – [and] their advanced ages – 80 and 82 years – place the State in a difficult position to prove that they are deliberately lying. Both Messrs Els and Sons did not testify in the original inquest proceedings in June 1972 or made statements then, and thus had to rely on their memories."

These arguments are manifestly spurious, as the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) in South Africa upheld the conviction of Robert Hewitt, the professional tennis player for the rape of two young girls, crimes that had been perpetrated in the 1980s. Hewitt was convicted and sentenced 37 years later when he was 75 years old.  The SCA held regarding his age "that whilst the courts have considered oldness as a mitigating factor, it is certainly not a bar to a sentence of imprisonment." The Full Bench in the Rodrigues matter in dealing with Joao Rodrigues's contention that he was old and infirm and that his memory was suspect reviewed the jurisprudence dealing with age and concluded that "age and infirmity are not grounds upon which the applicant can singularly rely on as a form of prejudice. These are grounds which, generally, a trial court must consider at sentencing."

If allowed to stand, these arguments will undermine the cause of justice for other outstanding cases such as those of the Cradock 4, the PEBCO case, Simelane, Bambo and many others which are before the NPA.

After many years of blatant political interference in the operations of the NPA, those hoping for justice for apartheid-era victims welcomed the appointment of the new National Director of Public Prosecutions, Adv Shamila Batohi, and her commitment to pursue justice in the public interest. The latest actions of the NPA, however, speak louder than words.

The SACTJ members fought against the state's attempt to introduce a back door amnesty for apartheid-era abuses in the form of special political pardons that side-lined victims from the process. In that struggle, political leaders and justice officials failed to take the rights of victims to heart, and it was only after litigation that the Constitutional Court ruled in 2010 that victims' participation could not be ignored. We are saddened to observe that the state still appears to be more beholden to political agendas than the rights of victims. We want to remind the state that as long as the apartheid perpetrators of crimes against humanity are allowed to escape justice there can be no reconciliation and no peace. The unpunished injustices of the past devalue the sacrifices that were made and undermines the foundations on which our democracy is built.

We therefore call on the NPA to:

• review the decision not to press charges as directed by Judge Mothle against Seth Sons and Neville Els and to indict them for perjury and;
• identify and investigate other security branch officials' who have been implicated in the murder of Neil Agget, and other apartheid-era victims and indict under the crime of apartheid;
• develop a clear plan for how it will pursue prosecutions in relation to cases that emerged from the TRC investigations and findings, and consult with relevant stakeholders in developing this framework;
• account to families of victims who have been left in the dark about progress on their cases.

The members of the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice are: Centre for Applied Legal Studies, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Foundation for Human Rights, Human Rights Media Centre, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Khulumani Support Group, Open Secrets, South African History Archives, Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture, and Violence Prevention Agency

For further information, please contact:

Hugo van der Merwe, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation: +27-825700744
Shirley Gunn, Human Rights Media Centre: +27 824509276

Government has moved decisively to address the health crisis brought on by Covid-19. Now we need to show equal resolve in responding to the new crisis faced by our communities: hunger.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcements of new social support measures will provide a welcome relief to many, but are unlikely to prevent an upsurge in hunger-related protests. The present ad hoc measures to roll out food parcels and slowly emerging plans for economic recovery are inadequate in the face of the hunger crisis that is unfolding.

A more coherent and engaged strategy is needed to gain trust and build community emergency support systems.

Read the rest of this Daily Maverick opinion piece here.

Find the full article here.

The book presents an African perspective on transitional justice through a compilation of country-specific and thematic analyses of agenda setting and lobbying efforts. It offers insights into state–civil society relations on the continent, which shape these agendas. The chapters present case studies from Southern, Central, East, West and North Africa, and a range of moments and types of transition. In addition to historical perspective, the chapters provide fresh and up-to- date analyses of ongoing transitional justice efforts that are key to defining the future of how the field is understood globally, in theory and in practice.

"This great volume of written work – Advocating Transitional Justice in Africa: The Role of Civil Society – does what virtually no other labour of the intellect has done heretofore. Authored by movement activists and thinkers in the fields of human rights and transitional justice, the volume wrestles with the complex place and roles of transitional justice in the project of societal reconstruction in Africa. … This volume will serve as a timely and thought-provoking guide for activists, thinkers, and policy makers – as well as students of transitional justice – interested in the tension between the universal and the particular in the arduous struggle for liberation. Often, civil society actors in Africa have been accused of consuming the ideas of others, but not producing enough, if any, of their own. This volume makes clear the spuriousness of this claim and firmly plants an African flag in the field of ideas." – Makau Mutua

Read more about the book in the Springer Series in Transitional Justice.