Pretoria - A police officer denied that he gave his members instructions to shoot during the violent strike at Marikana in August 2012, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Monday.
“I only shouted watch out, I didn't give the instruction to shoot,” Captain Wayne Peter Kidd said.
George Bizos SC, for the Legal Resources Centre, said two police officers alleged Kidd gave an instruction to shoot on August, 16, 2012.
Kidd was part of a reserve group deployed in Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West, to protect an informal settlement near the hill where the strikers had gathered.
He told the commission he did not know the details of police Standing Order 262.
It contains guidelines on how police should perform crowd management during protests and public unrest.
Kidd said he was put in charge after the public order police commander left.
Bizos asked Kidd if his supervisors knew that he had no experience in crowd management.
“I don't know if they knew, but they knew I was a Tactical Response Team commander,” he said.
The commission, chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during the violent wage-related strike at Lonmin's platinum mining operations.
On August 16, 2012, 34 people, mostly mineworkers, were shot dead by police, while trying to disarm and disperse them.
Another 10 people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed during the preceding week.
Sapa