Johannesburg - The behaviour of South Africa's police force remain largely unchanged since the apartheid era, former Constitutional Court Judge Zac Yacoob said in a report in The New Age on Monday.
“Sadly, the police of today do not seem to be better than the police of yesterday,” said Yacoob, in reference to the Marikana tragedy.
In August last year, 44 people died during strike-related unrest at Lonmin's Marikana operations in Rustenburg.
Thirty-four people - almost all striking mineworkers - were shot dead in a clash with police on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week.
Yacoob was speaking at the commemoration of the Golela Nine in Chatsworth, Durban.
Nine anti-apartheid activists, known as the Golela Nine were found dead after they were ambushed near the Swaziland border at Golela in 1988.
Yacoob had represented the families of the victims at the inquest into their death. - Sapa