Inquiry to shed light on Phiyega
SUSPENDED national police commissioner Gen Riah Phiyega will come under the spotlight today when the Claasen board of inquiry starts looking into her fitness to hold office.
SUSPENDED national police commissioner Gen Riah Phiyega will come under the spotlight today as an inquiry into her fitness to hold office begins.
The Claasen board of inquiry, which was appointed by President Jacob Zuma in October last year to look into her leadership role, will sit in Centurion.
Mr Zuma established the inquiry following recommendations by Judge Ian Farlam in the Marikana report.
The Farlam commission, which submitted its final report to the government last year, implicated Ms Phiyega and other senior police officers in the murders of 34 miners on August 16, 2012.
The report largely exonerated the key political figures accused of having a hand in the events leading to the Marikana tragedy. The Lonmin mine strike had lasted weeks and led to the deaths of more than 40 people including the 34 miners and police officers.
In appointing the Claasen board of inquiry‚ Mr Zuma said it should look into, among other factors, that:
■ The national commissioner, acting together with the leadership of the South African Police Service (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 about August 15, 2012;
■ 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‚ was amended deliberately to conceal the fact that there were two shooting incidents (Scene 1 and Scene 2)‚ resulting in misleading the public that all the deaths had occurred at Scene 1, which arose out of members of SAPS having to defend themselves from an advancing mass; and
■ The overall testimony by the national commissioner at the commission was in keeping with the office that she holds and the discharge of her duties commensurate therewith. The commission found that the SAPS commanders drew up an operational plan that was impractical and had actually misled the commission about the deaths.
Board chairman Judge Cornelis Claasen will work with advocates Bernard Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee. The board is expected to conclude hearings in the middle of next month.
Meanwhile, Police Minister Nkosi- nathi Nhleko announced on Friday a panel of experts tasked with transforning public order policing in SA in a bid to avert another Marikana.
Retired Judge David Ntshangase will chair the panel. Other members are: Themba Masuku, a research manager at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation; David Bruce, an independent researcher; Adele Kirsten, a director at lobby group Gun Free SA; head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security studies, Gareth Newham; and Eldred de Klerk from the Africa Centre for Security and Intelligence Practice.
They will be joined by senior officers from the police’s legal department.
Police union representatives will also be part of the group, while the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union will be represented by its national secretary Thulani Nsele. South African Policing Union deputy president Tumelo Mogodiseng will represent his union. On the list of global members is Dutch lawenforcement expert Cees de Rover.