The inquiry into the fitness of suspended police boss Riah Phiyega to hold office will hear of a “secret meeting” in which mortuary vans were ordered before the August 16 2012 Marikana massacre.
The board of inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office and misconduct for her role in the adoption of a plan that led to the bloodshed kicked off in Pretoria yesterday.
The testimony on the vans will come from two mortuary officials, who will be asked to explain an entry in the mortuary log book about a call to them on the morning of the shootings.
Simon Laka and Philani Tladinyane, officials at Phokeng mortuary, will be able to testify as to when mortuary vans were arranged to be available.
The duo is scheduled to testify about an August 16 2012 handwritten request in the morgue’s occurrence book for mortuary vans to be sent to “Marikana police station for any disaster that can occur during the Marikana-Lonmin strike”.
The entry, which is part of the Marikana commission evidence, was timed at 8.30am.
That afternoon 34 striking miners were killed by police in Marikana and another 78 injured.
The way for their testimony was cleared at the opening of the inquiry when the chairman of the board, Judge Neels Claassen, ruled that evidence leaders were entitled to call witnesses who did not testify before the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana shootings.
Claassen also ruled that evidence leaders could use evidence not presented at the commission‚ such as a letter Phiyega wrote to President Jacob Zuma attacking the commission’s damaging findings on her part.
Claassen said Phiyega’s advocate William Mokhari had conceded that evidence leaders would be entitled to call witnesses. “In my view‚ the concession ... is a correct concession.
“This inquiry is in a nature of a disciplinary inquiry‚ and ... witnesses will be called by employer and employee‚” Claassen said.
However‚ the judge said witnesses had to be relevant to what the inquiry sought to establish.
On the second point‚ the judge said it stood to reason that representations Phiyega had made to the president after the Farlam Commission were relevant in that she had sought to explain her conduct and establish absence of guilt.
“It would be absurd to suggest that her statement is irrelevant. The evidence leaders would be entitled to refer to matters which occurred after the commission,” Claassen said.
The ruling also opens the door to the board examining Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela, divisional commissioner of the operational response services, on the details of a high-level meeting on August 15 2012 where the decision to disperse the striking Lonmin miners from a koppie in Marikana was taken.
Another key witness is expected to be Captain Monwabisi Joseph Ntlati from the police tactical response team, who told the Farlam Commission that they were informed the national police management had instructed police “to act against the armed strikers as they have to be disarmed and dispersed”.
“The public order policing members were to disperse the strikers and TRT will encircle small groups and disarm (the strikers),” Ntlati said at the time.
Phiyega, during the Farlam Commission, claimed to have forgotten the details of the contentious meetings, saying she did not have a “photographic memory”. The Farlam Commission report was critical of police leadership for misleading the inquiry on when the decision to disperse protest- ing miners was taken.
Zuma suspended Phiyega pending the outcome of the inquiry, which resumes today. — With additional reporting by Ernest Mabuza
New facts for Phiyega inquiry
The board of inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office and misconduct for her role in the adoption of a plan that led to the bloodshed kicked off in Pretoria yesterday.
The testimony on the vans will come from two mortuary officials, who will be asked to explain an entry in the mortuary log book about a call to them on the morning of the shootings.
Simon Laka and Philani Tladinyane, officials at Phokeng mortuary, will be able to testify as to when mortuary vans were arranged to be available.
The duo is scheduled to testify about an August 16 2012 handwritten request in the morgue’s occurrence book for mortuary vans to be sent to “Marikana police station for any disaster that can occur during the Marikana-Lonmin strike”.
The entry, which is part of the Marikana commission evidence, was timed at 8.30am.
That afternoon 34 striking miners were killed by police in Marikana and another 78 injured.
The way for their testimony was cleared at the opening of the inquiry when the chairman of the board, Judge Neels Claassen, ruled that evidence leaders were entitled to call witnesses who did not testify before the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana shootings.
Claassen also ruled that evidence leaders could use evidence not presented at the commission‚ such as a letter Phiyega wrote to President Jacob Zuma attacking the commission’s damaging findings on her part.
Claassen said Phiyega’s advocate William Mokhari had conceded that evidence leaders would be entitled to call witnesses. “In my view‚ the concession ... is a correct concession.
“This inquiry is in a nature of a disciplinary inquiry‚ and ... witnesses will be called by employer and employee‚” Claassen said.
However‚ the judge said witnesses had to be relevant to what the inquiry sought to establish.
On the second point‚ the judge said it stood to reason that representations Phiyega had made to the president after the Farlam Commission were relevant in that she had sought to explain her conduct and establish absence of guilt.
“It would be absurd to suggest that her statement is irrelevant. The evidence leaders would be entitled to refer to matters which occurred after the commission,” Claassen said.
The ruling also opens the door to the board examining Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela, divisional commissioner of the operational response services, on the details of a high-level meeting on August 15 2012 where the decision to disperse the striking Lonmin miners from a koppie in Marikana was taken.
Another key witness is expected to be Captain Monwabisi Joseph Ntlati from the police tactical response team, who told the Farlam Commission that they were informed the national police management had instructed police “to act against the armed strikers as they have to be disarmed and dispersed”.
“The public order policing members were to disperse the strikers and TRT will encircle small groups and disarm (the strikers),” Ntlati said at the time.
Phiyega, during the Farlam Commission, claimed to have forgotten the details of the contentious meetings, saying she did not have a “photographic memory”. The Farlam Commission report was critical of police leadership for misleading the inquiry on when the decision to disperse protest- ing miners was taken.
Zuma suspended Phiyega pending the outcome of the inquiry, which resumes today. — With additional reporting by Ernest Mabuza
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