Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed said on Wednesday that the victims and families of the Marikana massacre cannot be made to wait another year for accountability, as the country marks 11 years since the death of 34 miners in 2012.

On August 16, 2012, the South African Police Service opened fire on a crowd of striking Lonmin miners at Marikana, in South Africa’s North West province, as they protested over pay and working conditions at the mine.                

Mohamed said the lack of accountability for victims and their families was a recurring theme in South Africa and warned that this would only result in the continued lack of accountability for unlawful killings by police.

“We need to demand answers as to why it is taking 11 years in the case of the Marikana massacre for there to be any prosecutions, and ultimately accountability for the brutal loss of life,” she said.

Many reports have been released about the Marikana massacre, including one by Amnesty International, in 2016, titled ‘Smoke and mirrors: Lonmin’s failure to address housing conditions at Marikana’.

Mohamed pointed out that police actions on that fateful day were unlawful under South African domestic law, which required police officers to act within a framework of minimum force, and under international law and standards, in particular, the obligation to respect and protect life.

She added that the United Nations Basic Principles on the use of force and firearms allowed for use of force only in defence against imminent threat of death or serious injury and only when less extreme methods were insufficient.

Amnesty International South Africa has written to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) and the National Prosecuting Authority in the North West, asking for answers as to why there have been no prosecutions 11 years after the massacre.

The IPID said the role of police deployed in Marikana on that day was being investigated and added that the cases had now been transferred to the North West Director of Public Prosecutions.