Police did not set out to shoot dead striking workers at Lonmin’s Marikana Mine - their first aim was to disarm them.
This emerged in the 650 page report retired Judge Ian Farlam handed to President Jacob Zuma and which has been released to the public this week.
It also emerged that while 34 miners died at the hands of police, it is unlikely any of those who opened fire will be charged with murder.
In the days leading up to the shooting in August 2012 the situation in the mining area around Rustenberg in the North West Province turned violent as miners protested for higher wages. People were killed, including two policemen and two security guards.
After the deaths of the 34 miners, Zuma appointed Judge Farlam as chairman of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry.
He was assisted by senior advocates Bantubonke Tokota and Pingla Hemraj.
In the report Judge Farlam was critical of Lonmin, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the striking workers and the police.
He was particularly critical of the North West Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo and National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega, and recommended their fitness to hold office be probed.
The commission found Mbombo abandoned a well-structured plan and spearheaded a last minute attempt to end the strike.
She did so knowing it could lead to loss of life.
But it found her aim was to defuse the situation peacefully.
According to the report: “Although the commission is strongly critical of the decision by the provincial commissioner to launch the ‘tactical option’ on August 16, if the strikers did not voluntarily lay down their arms, sight must not be lost of the fact that her main desire was not for there to be a massacre or tragedy and for the strikers to be killed, but for the weapons to be laid down and for the strikers to leave the koppie.
“This clearly appears from the evidence of Amcu leader Joseph Mathunjwa that she berated him for not going to the koppie and persuading the strikers to do what he had confidently predicted the previous evening they would do.”
The commission also found that some of the police (members of the Tactical Response Team) who opened fire had reasonable grounds to believe they were under attack.
Evidence was led that as a group of striking miners advanced towards the police, a man in a brown jacket fired a pistol shot.
The commision found that:
- Those members would have been aware that strikers advancing in a group armed with traditional weapons had killed armed Lonmin security guards on August 12 and armed SAPS members on August 13.
- They would have been aware of the fact that many of the strikers were armed with traditional and dangerous weapons.
- In this context, they would also have seen strikers apparently advancing on them at speed from a short distance away, in circumstances in which they would not have had time to identify that the strikers were bent over with blankets over them and were possibly trying to protect themselves from rubber bullets and stun grenades from behind them.
When the police opened fire they shot 328 rounds of live ammunition over eight to twelve seconds. “It is apparent from video material three strikers fell in the first three seconds and thus, after that stage, no conceivable threat existed. Also during the first four seconds, an appreciable number of shots were fired as warning shots, into the ground, some possibly into the air, others certainly into the ground in front of the advancing strikers.
“As a result of this a dust cloud arose four seconds from the beginning of the volley which made it impossible for the Tactical Response Team members to see what was happening. By this time it appears that all of the front group of ten or eleven strikers had either fallen down or turned around before the dust cloud obscured them. It is common cause that some members went on firing multiple rounds for at least another four seconds after this.
“Gary White, the policing expert (from Northern Ireland) called by the South African Human Rights Commission, referred to this footage and said, correctly, that it showed that, ‘a large number of the shots continued to be fired into what was essentially a dust cloud without sight of any specific target’.
“This, he said, was reckless and unjustified. Regard being had to the fact that according to measurements made on Google Earth photographs the distance from the Tactical Response Team line to the front line of the strikers when the shooting started was about 18m, the commission is of the view that Mr White’s opinion in this regard is correct.
“After nine seconds Captain Loest (one of the officers in charge) raised his fist into the air and shouted, ‘cease fire’, after which he did not observe any threat existing that necessitated the use of either R5 rifles or 9mm pistols, although for some time some of the members continued firing.
According to the commission, this provided the clearest illustration of why military assault rifles should be banned in public order situations.
The above dealt with the first of two scenes at which police opened fire.
The commission was more critical of the shooting incident in the second scene, at which 14 miners died, and another three later, in hospital.
The commission recommended the prosecuting authority investigate the shootings with a view to charging the police as well as the striking mine workers.
But the report is also clear it is unlikely any of the police involved will face charges of murder.
The commission said: “The evidence indicates R5 bullets tend to disintegrate when entering the body of a victim. This is what happened at Marikana. As a result it is not possible on ballistic evidence to connect any member who shot at Marikana with any person who died.
“In the case of certain shooters there is prima facie evidence that the members concerned may well have been guilty of attempted murder, but it cannot be said that any shooter is guilty of murder because it cannot be shown which of the shooters actually killed anyone.
“In the case of the shooters who exceeded the bounds of self or private defence, the most they can be convicted of is attempted murder.”
Sunday Tribune