The South African government has sparked outrage after bringing charges against striking miners for the killings of 34 colleagues earlier this month, despite the fact they were shot dead by police. The victims were killed more than a week after walking off the job at the Marikana platinum mine in a call for higher pay. Police say they opened fire after workers tried to attack them with machetes, but the miners have accused the police of committing a massacre. The shooting marked the worst mass killing in South Africa since the end of apartheid. But on Thursday, the South African government invoked an apartheid-era “common purpose law” to charge 270 miners for their colleagues’ deaths.