Johannesburg — A total of 259 Marikana protesters were expected to appear in the Garankuwa Magistrate's Court on Monday.
"They will all appear in the Garankuwa Magistrate's Court on various charges which include murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, public violence and more," Captain Dennis Adrio said.
The protesters were arrested on Thursday following the violent confrontation between police and striking workers of Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana, North West.
A total of 34 people were killed in the shootout that erupted near the mine on Thursday when police tried to disperse striking miners.
More than 78 people were injured. Another 10 people had by then been killed in violent protests at the mine over the past week.
The protests were believed to be linked to rivalry between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) over recognition agreements at the mine.
Workers also wanted higher wages
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African governments are not yet mature on how to handle strikes, demonstrations, etc. The current regretable incident is the reflectio of poor thinking, planning or strategy - instead of more rubber bullets, water tanks, tear gas, etc. to neutralize this kind of protest we spend billions of dolars just to buy live ammunitions to kill all who fight injustices. Since it is impossible to stop people from demamding their rights, one way to minimize it is for governments to raise public awareness programmes on how to carry out peaceful demonstrations, protests, demands, etc with the police guiding and protecting them.