... The tragic incidents at the Lonmin platinum mine between August 11 and 16, 2012 in which 44 miners were killed, more than 70 injured and approximately 250 people arrested, remains a scar in the tissue of post-democratic South Africa. The massacre, described as the worst since the Sharpeville massacre of March 21, 1960, was indicative of underlying crises in gov...

What makes the Marikana massacre particularly chilling and poignant is the fact that the use of lethal force on a mass scale was sanctioned by South Africa's democratically elected government. It also makes the massacre relevant to international law. It will be established in this article that the killing of 34 striking miners by the South African police is a crime...