Marikana mine strike: South Africa to drop murder charges

South African prosecutors have provisionally dropped murder charges against 270 miners whose colleagues were shot dead by police.

The charges cannot be dismissed formally until the end of the inquiry, but prosecutors said all detained miners would be freed. State prosecutors had charged them with the murder of 34 striking Marikana miners under the controversial "common purpose" doctrine.

Lawyers had asked President Jacob Zuma to reverse the decision but he refused to intervene in the case.

The BBC's Nomsa Maseko reports.