'State must apologise and compensate Marikana families' - legal representative

SERI's Nomzamo Zondo describes the process the families of injured and killed Marikana miners have gone through to get compensation from the state.

According to a representative of the families of miners who were killed and injured in Marikana, the state has agreed to compensate one heads of damages of several that the families have claimed for.

They still have not apologised, and they have not said anything about other heads of damages

Nomzamo Zondo, Litigation Director at SERI

The Presidency confirmed on Sunday that the state is ready to compensate the families of miners who were injured or killed in Marikana in August 2012.

Speaking to Africa Melane on the John Robbie Show, the spokesperson of the Police Ministry said that the department would implement some of the recommendations of the Farlam Commission in accordance to the Presidency's statement.

Of course we are grateful because through it (the Marikana Commission of Inquiry) we were able to find out a lot of information that was hidden by the police and other players who had a hand in the Marikana massacre, but what happened after the commission we anticipated the state to say look now the report has come out, we understand that the police were in the wrong, here's the compensation. But instead we had to take them to court

Nomzamo Zondo, Litigation Director at SERI

Nomzamo Zondo, Litigation Director at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), says that it has been a long process to try and get the state to compensate the families.

Speaking to #NightTalk's Sizwe Dhlomo, Zondo says that the families found it strange that after the Marikana Commission of Inquiry made public its findings, there was still no compensation from the state.

The problem that we had was that in the same way that President Zuma pronounced before he released the report about how these miners also killed people, is that the state still sees the miners in that way

Nomzamo Zondo, Litigation Director at SERI

Zondo says that it would have been ideal for the state to compensate the families of the killed and injured miners in Marikana as quickly as possible, but this has not happened.

Listen to the conversation below: