Johannesburg - The writing is on the wall for beleaguered National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega as the speculation is she will become a casualty of the Farlam Commission report findings on the Marikana massacre, which left 34 striking mineworkers dead.
President Jacob Zuma is expected to go public on or before June 30 with the recommendations from the report. This follows pressure from NGOs, trade union Amcu and other interest groups which have resorted to approaching the courts to force the president to release the report handed to him in March.
Stakeholders including the police, unions, families of the victims and Lonmin – the mining company at the centre of the storm – are waiting for its release.
Sources who have had a sneak peek into the closely guarded document said the findings were damning of the police and the role played by Phiyega in particular, in the August 2012 killings of the Lonmin platinum mineworkers during a strike for salary increases.
It is also said the president has asked Phiyega to resign her position and take up another post as an ambassador, but she has stubbornly refused to move, saying she will only do so if she is fired.
What is said to have led to Phiyega’s undoing were her comments in the aftermath of what has been the worst-ever massacre in the history of a democratic South Africa. Her speech caused an outrage when she was quoted as saying to her officers: “It was the right thing to do” while addressing mourners at the funeral of Warrant Officer Sello Ronnie Lepaaku on August 20, 2012. Lepaaku was killed by the miners a few days before the massacre.
Phiyega said at the funeral: “We are so sorry that lives were lost,” adding that the safety of the public was “non-negotiable. As SAPS, we are doing our work. No criminal, no person, will discourage us from doing so. Take into account the reasons why we did this. Our officers were emotionally bruised.”
Phiyega’s apparently insensitive conduct at the Farlam Commission also drew a lot of flak and negative publicity when she was seen laughing and talking in full view of widows and relatives of the dead miners.
The Farlam Commission Report has been kept as a tight secret and no leaks have been reported other than speculation that its findings are damning of the role of the police and Phiyega.
The sudden departure of North West police commissioner Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo from her position recently has also fuelled speculation that she too will be facing criminal charges for the massacre. She was reportedly heard, during a conversation with Lonmin management, encouraging the mining company not to negotiate with the strikers.
Mbombo has denied that her resignation from the police force was related to the Farlam Commission report, saying that at the age of 60, she felt it was the right time to retire.
SABC News rejected reports that Zuma was linked to Mbombo’s retirement following claims by Marikana Commission defence attorney Andries Nkome that Zuma met Phiyega and discussed an alternative deployment for her.
Presidential spokesman Harold Maloka was quoted as saying Nkome’s claim was a lie. “The president does not manage any careers of provincial commissioners and as such he has nothing to do with the reported retirement.
“The fact that he is insinuating that he could be linked to this processing of the Marikana report by the president is malicious and mischievous.”
Other organisations and political parties such as the EFF have been baying for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s head, saying he should shoulder some of the blame for the killings in Marikana.
Ramaphosa was a nonexecutive member of the Lonmin Platinum Mine board at the time. However, sources said the report had found him not liable for his role of calling the police and sending the now-famous e-mail to former police minister Nathi Mthethwa asking for “concomitant action to address this situation”.
It is said the report has also suggested that some of the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of Lonmin management, who failed to engage with the striking miners because they said the National Union of Mineworkers was the recognised union at the time of the strike.
Asked for comment on Lonmin’s expectations of the report, the company’s executive vice-president communications and public affairs Lerato Molebatsi said it would be incorrect to speculate on the findings of the report but the expectations were that the outcome would be as per the mandate of the president.
“Our expectations are per the mandate the president gave to Judge Farlam, meaning the report will have a very broad stakeholder focus to ensure that we all see our roles in it, and also to ensure that something like this never happens again,” he said.
“Our expectations are that instead of a finger-pointing exercise, ultimately we should as a nation collectively understand what led to the tragedy – the week that changed all our lives. We should have seen what structural changes in mining communities are required so that there is a new narrative around mining.
“Employer-employee relations, housing and the role of the state, issues of the migrant labour system need to be addressed.
Because migrants are no longer solely from neighbouring states – we have migrants internally, who come from poor provinces that are unable to provide jobs for their citizens.
“We expect the report will look at issues such as financial literacy, how we are going to solve the mashonisa problem – people who are literally making others die by charging exorbitant interest rates on loans – those recommendations should probe all of us as people.”
The Sunday Independent