Mpembe, former provincial head of detectives Brigadier Gideon van Zyl, Colonel Dingaan Madoda, and Captain Oupa Pule face charges of contravening the Commissions Act, contravening the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) Act, and defeating the ends of justice.

They were arrested in March 2018 after an investigation by the Ipid found that mineworker Modisaotsile van Wyk Sagalala died in police custody and not in hospital or at the scene of the August 2012 shooting in Marikana, near Rustenburg.

On August 16, 2012, 34 mostly mineworkers were shot dead by police during a violent wildcat strike at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine. Ten other people, including two police officers and two Lonmin security guards, died during the preceding week.

The state alleged that the four officers concealed the circumstance of Sagalala's death.

ANA