State has moral duty to help the Marikana families

The Times Editorial: It now seems increasingly unlikely, after yesterday's Constitutional Court ruling, that the courts will order the government to foot the bill for the legal costs incurred at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry by the families of the 44 people, mostly miners, killed at Marikana last year.

Last month, the Pretoria High Court dismissed advocate Dali Mpofu's application for a temporary order to this effect on the basis that - barring evidence of corruption or other illegality - the determination of how public funds should be spent fell squarely within the ambit of the government.

Yesterday, the Constitutional Court dismissed the Marikana families' appeal, largely on technical grounds.

Noting that it was not well-equipped to deal with urgent applications, the court said it would not be in the interests of justice to overturn the judgment of the Pretoria court because the application for a review of the decision by the minister of justice and by Legal Aid SA not to pay the families' costs had yet to be heard by the high court.

While the miners' families scurry about for alternative sources of funding for their counsel the matter goes back to the high court.

All of this is so unnecessary. In its ruling last month, the high court noted that ''nothing prevents the parties from settling this matter outside the courts''. This is where the government is failing the victims of Marikana and the public at large.

Just because there is no legal framework compelling it to do so does not mean that the state is not morally bound to foot the miners' legal bill. It is paying the lawyers of the police witnesses at the commission - surely it is in the interests of justice for it to pay the victims of the police shootings as well.

When he instituted the commission President Jacob Zuma promised that it would get to the bottom of the Marikana tragedy. He must now put his money where his mouth is.