Did you see that ... I blew him apart ’
NEW shocking evidence of police boasting about having “blown up” a miner emerged yesterday at the Marikana commission of inquiry.
This was among a list of things that advocate Dali Mpofu, representing the survivors of the Marikana massacre, argued did not represent responsible policing.
In a transcript read yesterday, two officers talk about one of them shooting miners who had muthi in their possession.
“That muthi shit doesn’t work here baba, ” one officer said.
This is followed by another Sesotho officer boasting to his friends “
blown apart!) ”.
National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega sat in the hot seat yesterday where she struggled to defend the police who gunned down 34 miners in Marikana with automatic rifles during a wage dispute at Lonmin mine.
The commission has heard from a police officer – who was yet to be called to testify in the commission – that he saw one of his colleagues pointing a gun at a miner at the small koppie.
About 18 miners are believed to have been shot execution style in the “small koppie”, also known as scene 2.
Despite all this fresh evi-
(I’ve
him dence against the police, Phiyega appeared to maintain the police had done nothing wrong.
She said she believed police followed the required prescripts to such an extent that she had to thank them during a police parade on August 20 – four days after the massacre.
“You do not want to change (your stance?), asked Mpofu.
Phiyega answered: “That question, in its many forms, I have answered to the best of my ability.”
Mpofu challenged her, based on discovered footage, saying the breaches of responsible policing included:
numerous shots being fired despite a call for seize-fire; the conduct of police officers alleged to have been heard laughing loudly around the dead bodies and taking pictures with their cellphones;
an officer heard saying “I’ll shoot you” presumably to the miners lying on the dusty ground;
an officer seen dragging a corpse of a shot miner;
an officer seen placing his boot on the face of a corpse, seemingly turning the dead man’s head with it.
Phiyega told the commission she could not judge on these matters. Seemingly tired of the continual game of cat and mouse, Mpofu said: “[ You are] the most evasive person I have ever come across.” –