Pretoria - The police's role in the days before the shooting of 34 people at Marikana, in North West, in 2012 was in the spotlight at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry on Thursday.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, for the Legal Resources Centre, cross-examined Lonmin's former chief commercial officer Albert Jamieson at the public hearings in Pretoria.
“Would you agree with me that it would have been wrong for the police to be involved in the negotiations pertaining to the ending of the strike?” Ngcukaitobi asked.
Jamieson agreed.
“That is probably why you, personally, were not keen to get the police to be involved in that aspect of the dispute,” said Ngcukaitobi.
Jamieson responded: “I didn't express any opinion on whether I thought they should get involved. I was never asked.”
Ngcukaitobi said the statements of several senior police officers at Marikana, including major generals Charl Annandale and Ganasen Naidoo, showed they understood their role to be ending the mineworkers' strike.
Quoting Annandale's statement, Ngcukaitobi read: “The 1/8police 3/8 negotiators were tasked to encourage the protesters to return to their work stations. Mine management would engage with the miners about the labour matters.”
Jamieson said he had a different understanding of the police's role. He said apart from maintaining law and order, he did not have any other understanding of the police's role during the strike.
The commission, which is chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during unrest near Lonmin's Marikana mine.
Police opened fire on a group of mostly striking mineworkers, killing 34 of them on August 16, 2012. Around 70 people were injured and more than 200 were arrested. Police claimed they were trying to disperse and disarm them.
Ten people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the preceding week.
In his sworn statement to the inquiry, Jamieson said he had expressed concern prior to August 16 that the strike would not be resolved without the heightened involvement of the police and the army.
He expressed “deepest sympathy” to all the families which lost members during the Marikana shootings.
Sapa