[Saffa]

Am I reading this article right? What kind of sick and twisted law would allow police prosecute miners for the murders they didn't actually carry out?

"This is under common law, where people are charged with common purpose,"

Roman Dutch Common law

But you are missing the point really. Before the actual assault by the violent strikers on the police began, 10 people were already killed by them - of which 2 policemen and 2 security guards - and brutally, some were hacked to death and pieces with machetes during protests preceding the riot.
If the police did not opened fire with sharp point ammunition to protect themselves from the thousands of heavily armed charging hooligans out for the kill, we would have massive funerals for policemen and the subsequent results of such blood shedding (and witch doctors invincibility brew taken by strikers) would have had dire and unthinkable consequences had this horde moved on into streets or public areas.
If this rampage was left unchallenged by the police, this country would have had anarchy spreading throughout the country like veldfire from others taking cue from that. Remember, this is Africa and sometimes things look strange to outsiders, but you have to live here most of your life to fathom these actions.

The rich and civilized including the "fat cats" of the anc only represents a fraction of the black population in SA and the majority are poor and illiterate (the new black youth generation are changing this but will take a long time to replace the current generation) living a life below the breadline most of the times in less than perfect surroundings. These people get influenced very easily by promises etc , especially when their well being is at stake and perhaps this is due to the frustration of being poor and jobless. This is the very reason the anc stays in power - most blacks will complain about the anc letting them down big time, and some actually want apartheid rule back again because there was jobs, stability and much less crime than now with that system, but come election time, anc fat cats will promise them the world and more if they elect them and get influenced all anew again. These fat cats just care for themselves to feed off the gravy train a few more years, so why worry about the have-nots?

[Jay Ranger]

It seems to me that South Africa suffered greatly for its neoliberal interference. IMF-supported economic policies have created a modern European hub of culture and wealth in amongst some of the poorest shanty towns on the planet; having private companies take over the country's key infrastructure is always doomed to failure for the country, but at least it allows foreign investors to rape the country of resources and enforce wage stagnation.

It also appears that a real problem is the lack of basic education and health services. Post-Mandela, South Africa could indeed have invested massively in public services and undergone an Attlee-style resurgence of their infrastructure, but instead opted to leave it up to IMF-backed loans and private institutions that will keep wages low, keep the unions under their boot and bribe the corrupt politicians to keep the place stagnating. I have been fortunate to go to South Africa on numerous occasions, and it appeared a simultaneously beautiful and unnerving place; some of the nicest restaurants, some of the nicest suburbs with wonderful airports and business centres that are protected by miles and miles of nothingness before you reach shanty towns that go on for miles and miles and miles and miles, and the enforced anti-white- rather, pro-black- legislation has basically created an upper-middle class of unqualified, corrupt black politicians, army officials and businessmen who have no motivation nor political incentive to improve the education and quality of life for their brethren because it would expose them for what they are- feckless twats.