Inquiry probes Phiyega’s conduct
DAMNING terms of reference for a probe into national police commissioner Riah Phiyega’s fitness to hold office will also consider whether she misled the president on Marikana.
CAPE TOWN — Damning terms of reference for a probe into national police commissioner Riah Phiyega’s fitness to hold office will also consider whether she deliberately misled President Jacob Zuma on the circumstances of the shooting to death of 34 miners at Marikana in 2012.
Mr Zuma announced yesterday a three-member board of inquiry led by Judge Cornelis Claasen to probe “the allegations of misconduct by the national commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), and/or her capacity to execute official duties efficiently”.
The other two members are advocates Bernard Sakhile Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee.
The board of inquiry was one of the recommendations made by the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana deaths. Gen Phiyega has until Monday to give Mr Zuma reasons why she should not be suspended.
Mr Zuma said the board of inquiry would look into whether “the report prepared by the national commissioner for the President of the Republic on August 16 2012 and the media statement subsequently issued on August 17 2012 (were) deliberately amended to conceal that there were two shooting incidents (scene 1 and scene 2) at Marikana, resulting in misleading the public that all the deaths had occurred at scene 1 which arose out of members of the SAPS having to defend themselves from an advancing mass”.
The board of inquiry would also look into whether “the national commissioner, acting together with other leadership of the SAPS or alone, misled the commission by concealing that it had made the decision to implement a ‘tactical option’, taken at the National Management Forum meeting on or around August 15 2012.”
It would also consider if the decision to implement the “tactical option” ought to have reasonably foreseen the tragic and catastrophic consequences.
Also to be interrogated is whether Gen Phiyega’s remarks “at the SAPS parade on August 17 2012 would have been understood to be an unqualified endorsement of the police action and thereby having the consequence of undermining, frustrating or otherwise impeding the work of the commission”.
The head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies, Gareth Newham, said the Farlam Commission had found Gen Phiyega to be dishonest, saying: “It would be untenable for her to continue in her position while the board of inquiry does its work.”
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dianne Kohler Barnard welcomed the inquiry, saying: “This is one step closer to attaining justice for the victims and families of those who were brutally massacred by an SAPS acting with lethal force on that fateful day. Ms Phiyega, who bears ultimate responsibility for SAPS operations, must be disciplined and ultimately fired.”
Ms Kohler Barnard said the DA noted that the board of inquiry’s terms of reference were limited to her conduct related to the Marikana tragedy.
The DA would have hoped that the terms of reference could include her entire career as police commissioner.