Phiyega, Lonmin, unions to blame
POLITICAL heads have come through the Marikana Commission of Inquiry largely unscathed, but police commissioner General Riah Phiyega faces an inquiry into her fitness to hold office, while former North West provincial commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo has fallen on her sword.
The two were the only individuals fingered in the report, but it also recommended a full investigation under the North West director of public prosecutions to determine criminal liability of all members of the police involved in action at scenes one and two of the massacre, where a total of 34 striking miners were killed on August 16, 2012.
This investigation is to be headed by a senior state advocate, assisted by independent crime scene experts and investigators from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, former police minister Nathi Mthethwa and former minister of mineral resources Susan Shabangu have been cleared of responsibility for the massacre, President Jacob Zuma announced on national television last night, when he also announced the full report would be gazetted and put on the Presidency and government websites, following a clamour for its release.
The report was handed to Zuma in March. The deaths of 10 others, including two police officers, two Lonmin security guards and four miners in the days leading up to the massacre are to be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for further investigation.
Zuma said he had written to Phiyega to inform her of the recommendation, while Police Minister Nathi Nhleko would contact Mbombo, who retired last month, to inform her of steps affecting her. Mbombo emerged during the inquiry as a central player in the planning of the police operation leading to the massacre, having vowed on the morning of August 16 that: “We are ending the strike today.”
The inquiry, headed by retired Judge Ian Farlam, found the police should not have proceeded with a plan to surround and disarm striking workers positioned on the Marikana koppie after having failed to do so early in the morning, when there were only a few of them.
By the afternoon, when their numbers had swelled, it would have been impossible to execute this plan without “significant bloodshed”, according to the summary of the report.
The first plan was replaced by the “tactical option” at about 3.40pm, resulting in the deaths of the 34. The report also slammed the conduct of senior police management during the inquiry, when officials failed to disclose that the plan had been abandoned the first day it was attempted and that the decision to unleash the tactical option if strikers refused to disperse and disarm had been taken at a national management forum meeting the night before the shooting.
Police had instead told the inquiry this decision had been taken only on the 16th, after the situation escalated.
Zuma said the commission had expressed “serious concern” over the delay of an hour before medical help arrived. At least one striker might have lived if he had been helped sooner.
Phiyega’s staunch defence of the police action in the wake of the massacre also came in for criticism. The report recommended that the commissioner and minister should take care in the event of police operations requiring further investigation not to address officers in a manner that might encourage them to close ranks and fail to disclose what they knew. A panel of experts should be appointed to review public order policing in the country.
Lonmin, the company at the centre of the strike and of which Ramaphosa was a non-executive director at the time, was criticised for failing to do its best to resolve the dispute, as well as tensions between striking and non-striking workers. It had insisted on non-striking workers reporting for duty, knowing it couldn’t protect them.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union had failed to control its members and ensure they acted lawfully and didn’t endanger lives. It had sung provocative songs and officials had made inflammatory remarks. The National Union of Mineworkers came in for similar criticism. It had encouraged workers to report for duty when there was a real danger they would be killed or injured. The massacre had been a “horrendous tragedy”, Zuma said.