From [HERE] South African authorities on Thursday invoked a legal move seldom used since the dying days of apartheid in order to charge 270 striking miners with the murder of 34 co-workers who were seen being shot dead in a hail of police bullets earlier this month.

Prosecutors have filed papers using a measure called "common purpose", arguing the miners were complicit in the killings since they were arrested at the scene with weapons.

Legal experts said the move will likely collapse when a court hearing bail applications for the 270 near the mine resumes sessions next week and lambasted prosecutors for inflaming a tense situation by seeking a mass indictment that will eventually be rejected. Pierre de Vos, a law expert at the University of Cape Town, wrote in a blog that the decision to charge the miners was "bizarre and shocking and represents a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system, most probably in an effort to protect the police and/or politicians ..."

Eighteen years after the country's first free and fair elections, the decision to charge the miners is raising questions about the direction of South Africa's democracy and the rights of the poor in the world's most unequal country.

"The apartheid state often used this provision to secure a criminal conviction against one or more of the leaders of a protest march, or against leaders of struggle organizations like the ANC," de Vos wrote in reference to the African National Congress, which was then a guerilla group in opposition to the apartheid regime but which is now the ruling party.

Pressure on Zuma
President Jacob Zuma and the ANC have faced increasing pressure over the killings, which are the deadliest security incident since apartheid ended in 1994, with many saying the government may be more concerned about protecting its own than miners in shafts.

The government has launched a probe into the killings, including the deaths of 10 people ahead of the Aug 16 shooting at Lonmin's Marikana mine, northwest of Johannesburg.

It is withholding any police punishment until the investigation is over, which is estimated to be sometime in early 2013.

But after heavy criticism in the South African media, the government appears to be attempting to distance itself from the decision to charge the miners.

On Friday, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) must explain why the murder charges were brought.

"There is no doubt that the NPA’s decision has induced a sense of shock, panic and confusion within the members of the community and the general South African public. It is therefore incumbent upon me to seek clarity on the basis upon which such a decision is taken," Radebe said.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate, a government watchdog, said it had received nearly 200 complaints from the arrested miners of being assaulted and abused while in custody.

Patrick Craven, National Spokesperson for the Congress of South African Trade Unions said his organization was "absolutely outraged at the decision."