Ramaphosa has case to answer on Marikana 'collusion', but not on murder of miners, court rules

President Cyril Ramaphosa will have to answer to accusations he unlawfully pressurised police top brass to take action against Marikana miners - but a judge has found there was no case to show he pushed for their murders.

Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, who is representing 349 miners who survived the police's fatal shooting of 34 of their colleagues on 16 August 2012, had argued that, by proposing concomitant action against striking miners, Ramaphosa was, in fact, proposing they be murdered.

At the time of the massacre, which sent shockwaves around the world, Ramaphosa had been serving as a director of Lonmin (now Sibanye Stillwater).