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