‘Police version of Marikana not true’
HE police have lied about what happened when 34 striking miners were killed in Marikana last year.
In a damning statement issued yesterday, the Marikana Commission of Inquiry postponed proceedings until next week after obtaining documents showing that the SAPS version of events “is in material respects not the truth”.
The SAPS had not responded last night.
The commission was originally postponed last Wednesday, interrupting the crossexamination of Colonel Duncan Scott, who played an important part in drafting the plan to disperse and disarm the protesters.
At the time, evidence leader Geoff Budlender SC said a first look at Scott’s hard drive revealed documents the commission previously didn’t know existed.
Now, the commission says it found:
Documents the SAPS said didn’t exist;
Documents the commission believes the SAPS should have disclosed, but didn’t;
Documents claiming to be written at the time of Marikana, but which the commission believes were actually written later at a nine-day meeting in Potchefstroom where the SAPS prepared its case ahead of the commission; and
TDocuments showing that the SAPS version of events at Marikana put forward both in evidence and presentation were “in material respects not the truth”.
“We do not make this statement lightly,” said the commission.
“We recognise that it is important that the SAPS should have the opportunity to explain the matters which have raised our concern. However, we have to say that absent a convincing explanation, the material which we have found has serious consequences for the further conduct of the work of this commission.”
The commission added that the information was provided willingly by SAPS members.
The commission will now stand down until next Wednesday for the SAPS legal team to regroup and also for further examination of the new data, which consists of thousands of pages.
“As we speak, the technical people are continuing the painstaking and slow task of identifying and copying the further SAPS hard drive material of which we will be given copies.”
“In the light of the documents which we have found, it is also necessary for us to work through all of the new material in our possession, and to obtain access to additional hard drives and electronic records, before we are ready to continue with the hearing. It will also be necessary for the SAPS legal team to consult with their clients on these matters.”
Police shot dead 34 people while trying to disperse and disarm them on August 16, last year. Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week. A SECOND truck owned by Gregory Govender of Phoenix-based Sagekal Logistics was suspended yesterday for having no brakes. Govender also owned the truck that killed 23 people at Field’s Hill two weeks ago.
The truck was driven by a Zimbabwean and impounded at the Road Traffic Inspectorate’s Mariannhill testing ground. – Mercury Reporter