Garankuwa -
A group of miners detained after a shooting and protests near Lonmin's Marikana's mine were brought into the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate's Court amid heightened security on Tuesday.
Benches on the left-hand side of the court were reserved for the miners and dozens of police officers. The media and a few other people were on the right.
The men were arrested following violence at Lonmin's Marikana operation in the North West province on August 16.
A batch of 28 people was brought into the courtroom, escorted by numerous police officers.
On Monday, the court heard that, because the court could not accommodate all the accused at once, three had been selected from each police station where they were being held and they would convey the outcome to the others.
Advocate Lesego Mmusi, for the 260 miners said they should be released to allow them to access life-saving medicine.
He said some of them had been taking medication for diseases like tuberculosis and HIV and Aids, prior to their arrest on August 16.
“These people have been detained from August 16. Today they spent the day sitting in police trucks. I am not sure if they got food,” he said.
The State had indicated earlier that it was seeking another seven-day postponement to allow ongoing investigations to proceed.
Potchefstroom head of detectives, Brigadier Jacobus van Zyl, was called by the State to support the postponement.
He said police had to verify those arrested's particulars, including their addresses. Their fingerprints were still being checked to determine whether they had outstanding criminal cases.
So far, the investigating teams had found that four had pending criminal cases, but the probe was ongoing.
Van Zyl said the process of verifying their home addresses had not ended.
He said mining company Lonmin had indicated they would not be welcome back at work, and he did not know whether they would continue to stay at the mine's hostels.
Asked why the police were not deploying more human resources to speed up the verification process, Van Zyl said the police did not have the capacity.
He said 15 police officers were working on the case. - Sapa