Johannesburg - The management of the South African Police Service said on Friday it had noted the statements by President Jacob Zuma regarding the Marikana Commission of Inquiry’s report which was highly critical of the police’s handling of the strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in 2012 which eventually led to the shooting deaths of 34 miners on August 16 that year.
In a statement, police management said it had noted the findings and recommendations, which include calls for a probe into the fitness of national police commissioner Riah Phiyega and North West provincial commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo to hold their office. The damning report also raised the spectre of prosecuting authorities in that province looking into the possibility of criminal charges against police involved in the operation.
Police management said on Friday it would study the full report.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said: “Out of respect for the processes outlined by the president, SAPS management has taken a decision that no public pronouncements about the report, its findings and recommendations will be made. In the interim, the management of the police would like to reassure the public that policing duties will continue as normal.”
Naidoo stated that Phiyega had received the letter from Zuma regarding the findings and recommendations of the Marikana commission of inquiry and that Zuma had invited the national commissioner to respond by no later than July 31, 2015.
Naidoo said Phiyega would comply with the president’s directive.
“What happened in Marikana brought a lot of pain for everyone involved, especially the families, friends and colleagues of the deceased, as well as members of the SAPS and its leadership. It has been a difficult journey and regrettably, that journey continues,” police said.
The statement follows the release of the Marikana findings by Zuma on Thursday night which cleared deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and two members of the cabinet of any blame associated with the massacre, yet it severely criticised the country’s police leadership for its decisions and actions which led to the death of the 34 striking miners on August 16, 2012.
Zuma said the inquiry, which probed the death of a total of 44 people and the wounding of over 70 others from August 11 to August 16 in 2012, found fault with the decisions taken by national and provincial police management.
“The police should have waited until the following day when the original encirclement plan, which was substantially risk-free, could have been implemented.” Zuma said of the ill-fated decision by police to move against the miners.
Zuma went on to say that the original plan was to encircle the workers with barbed wire and offer them an exit point through which they would have moved while handing over their weapons. Police, however, decided to embark on a tactical operation at 15h40 on August 16, after which clashes between officers and striking workers led to the deaths of 34 miners.
“The police leadership did not inform the commission that the decision to go ahead with the tactical option if the strikers did not voluntarily lay down their arms and disperse was taken at the national management forum meeting on the 15th of August,” Zuma said.
The Marikana commission blamed Mbombo, as well as the national SAPS management team for taking the wrong decisions on August 16.
“The commission also found that the decision that the strikers would be forcibly removed from the koppie by the police on the 16 August [2012] if they did not voluntarily lay down their arms, was not taken by the tactical commander on the ground,” Zuma said.
The decision was, instead, taken by lieutenant-general Mbombo…and was endorsed by the SAPS leadership at the extraordinary session of the management forum.”
The commission recommended an inquiry into the fitness to hold office be instituted against Phiyega and Mbombo.
ANA