Police boss Phiyega to face three-person Board of Inquiry

A Board of Inquiry into allegations of misconduct by the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service‚ Riah Phiyega‚ has been established by President Jacob Zuma.

The members of the Board of Inquiry are Judge Cornelis Johannes Claasen‚ who will serve as chairperson‚ with advocates Bernard Sakhile Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee.

Phiyega has been under fire since the police shot dead 34 miners at Marikana on August 16 2012. The Farlam commission‚ which investigated the Marikana shootings‚ recommended an inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office.

Zuma’s office said in a statement that the Board of Inquiry would inquire into whether:

•  The National Commissioner acting together with other leadership of the South African Police Service or alone‚ misled the Commission by concealing that it had made the decision to implement a “tactical option”‚ taken at the National Management Forum meeting on or about 15 August 2012;
• The decision taken to implement the “tactical option” ought reasonably to have foreseen the tragic and catastrophic consequences which ensued;
•  The remarks by the National Commissioner at the SAPS parade on 17 August 2012 would have been understood to be an unqualified endorsement of the police action and thereby having the consequence of undermining‚ frustrating or otherwise impeding the work of the Commission;
•  The report prepared by the National Commissioner for the President of the Republic on the 16 August 2012 and the media statement subsequently issued on 17 August 2012‚ was deliberately amended to conceal the fact that there were two shooting incidents (Scene 1 and Scene 2)‚ resulting in misleading the public that all the deaths had occurred at Scene 1 which arose out of members of SAPS having to defend themselves from an advancing mass;
•  The overall testimony by the National Commissioner at the Commission was in keeping with the office which she holds and the discharge of her duties commensurate therewith.

Zuma said Phiyega had been provided with the terms of reference of the Board of Inquiry “following her request for further clarity with regards to the inquiry‚ and has in addition accorded General Phiyega a further opportunity to make representations … as to why she should not be suspended pending the final determination of her fitness to hold office”. The deadline for this was September 28.