Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court will rule on Friday on whether the State should pay the legal costs for the miners arrested and injured at Marikana last August, the Constitutional Court said on Thursday.
“Judgment will be handed down tomorrow, Friday, August 16 at 2pm,” the court said in a statement.
The legal costs relate to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana last year.
Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week.
On June 21 Dali Mpofu, for the miners, told the commission that due to financial constraints, it could be his last day representing the miners. He brought an urgent court application in the High Court in Pretoria several weeks ago seeking funding, but this was dismissed.
Mpofu then took the State to the Constitutional Court, asking that it pay for his legal team.
The commission was postponed on Wednesday pending the court's decision.
Mpofu provisionally withdrew from the commission in July pending the high court decision. Friday marks the first anniversary of the shootings in Marikana.
Sapa