Cape Town – The Marikana commission of inquiry has recommended an probe into the fitness of national police commissioner Riah Phiyega to hold down her job as well as that of North West provincial commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.
“The commission has also recommended that there must an inquiry into the fitness to hold office of the national police commissioner as well as the North-West provincial police commissioner in terms of section 9 of the South African Police Service Act,” Zuma said as he read out the key findings of the long-awaited report in a live television broadcast.
Zuma said he had written to Phiyega to inform her of the recommended action against her.
The commission, which probed the 2012 shooting of striking miners at Marikana, also recommended a full investigation of all police who were involved in the events of August 16 that year that left 34 miners dead, with a view to potential criminal charges against them.
The police’s tactics came in for severe criticism in the report, with responsibility given to the national command and Mbombo, not the head of the tactical team on the ground at Marikana.
“The commission has found that it would have been impossible to disarm and disperse the strikers without significant bloodshed on the afternoon of the 16 August,” Zuma said.
“The police should have waited until the following day when the original unsettlement plan which was substantially risk-free could have been implemented.”
The commission blamed Mbombo, as well as the national SAPS management team, for taking inappropriate decisions on how to deal with the explosive situation as armed striking miners gathered on a hill near Lonmin’s Marikana operations.
“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.”
Political analyst Steven Friedman commented after the release of the findings that he would be surprised if Phiyega kept her job.
ANA