Phiyega dictated changes to Marikana statement: ex-cop

The inquiry into National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega's fitness to hold office is being led by Judge Cornelius Claasen. File picture: Itumeleng English

The inquiry into National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega's fitness to hold office is being led by Judge Cornelius Claasen. File picture: Itumeleng English

Published May 5, 2016

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Pretoria – Former South African Police Service spokesman Lindela Mashigo told the Claassen board of inquiry that he made changes to the SAPS media statement issued after the Marikana shooting at the insistence of suspended police chief Riah Phiyega.

“The changes came about through dictation by the national commissioner. The main changes were on the statement. The changes came about when we were putting together a media statement which was released on August 17 (2012),” former Brigadier Mashigo told the three-member inquiry chaired by Judge Neels Claassen in Pretoria on Thursday.

“They (the alterations) were dictated to, by the national commissioner.”

Evidence leader Ismail Jamie asked Mashigo to narrate to the inquiry which changes were made to the police statement on the shooting death of 34 protesting mineworkers at Lonmin Mine in Marikana, near Rustenburg.

“To which changes are you referring to, when you say ‘the national commissioner further dictated changes which I effected to the documents on my laptop?'“ Jamie asked.

Mashigo said Phiyega dictated to him that the Marikana incidents should not be relayed to the media, at a briefing on August 17, 2012, as two scenes, but rather a single occurrence in which the miners were shot and killed.

“The changes that were dictated … the first is not differentiating between the two scenes (where the miners were shot). As you will see in the media statement, that was not captured. There was no scene 1 and scene 2,” said Mashigo.

“The second change that I had to effect was the ‘systematical withdrawal’ of the police. That too was dictated to me by the national commissioner.”

Claassen sought clarity on what the systematic withdrawal of police meant. Jamie read out a sentence on the final police statement which indicated that “police retreated systematically and were forced to utilise maximum force to defend themselves”.

Jamie asked Mashigo to explain how that statement was coined into the police statement.

Mashigo responded: “That is the line I’m referring to. Besides not mentioning or differentiating the two scenes, that is a line that was dictated to me by the national commissioner when we were compiling that media statement.”

Jamie also read out another line in the SAPS statement: “The militant group stormed towards the police firing shots and wielding dangerous weapons.” He said that that sentence had been altered from the previous SAPS statement prepared for the press briefing.

A composed Mashigo responded: “That too is a line that was suggested that it should be in the media statement, by the national commissioner.”

Phiyega, flanked by lawyers, looked attentively as Mashigo outlined his evidence. She too was taking notes.

Mashigo said Phiyega dictated the changes inside a Lonmin Mine building, before the press briefing, a day after police shot and killed the 34 protesting workers.

The former policeman began his testimony by informing the inquiry that he had since left the police and was now a media relations officer for the Tshwane municipality.

On Wednesday, Captain Monwabisi Joseph Ntlati testified that orders to embark on a tactical operation to move in on protesting Marikana miners on August 16, 2012 came from “national management”.

“At about 14:30 (on August 16 2012), I received a message from Brigadier Calitz that all commanders must report at forward holding area 1. We were briefed by Lt-General Scott in the presence of Brigadier Pretorius,” said Ntlati, who was commanding the specialised Tactical Response Team police unit.

“During the briefing, we were informed that the national management instructed that the police must act against the armed strikers as they have to be disarmed and dispersed. The POP (public order police) members were to disperse the strikers and the TRT (Tactical Response Team) will encircle small groups and disarm them.”

Jamie asked Ntlati to explain who comprised police management.

“When Colonel Scott used the term ‘national management’ had instructed that you must act, who did you understand he was referring to?” Jamie asked.

“I understood that it was all the managers of the police are the ones instructing that we should act,” Ntlati responded.

Jamie asked again: “You say all the management. Who does that include?”

Ntlati said he understood the message was coming from police generals, “and in their absence, it would be coming from those in charge”.

Unconvinced, Jamie asked again: “When police speak about national management, who are they referring to?”

Ntlati replied national management referred to the national commissioner and divisional commissioners of the police, but did not include provincial top police officers.

The inquiry was adjourned early on Thursday as Phiyega’s representative, advocate William Mokhari SC, requested to cross-examine Mashigo on Friday.

In September, President Jacob Zuma announced that he had set up the Claassen-led board of inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office.

Claasen chairs the three-member board, assisted by advocates Bernard Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee.

Phiyega’s actions in mid-August, 2012, when 34 miners were killed during a violent strike at the Lonmin mine in the North West in what is believed to be the biggest loss of life in a single police operation in post-apartheid South Africa, was heavily criticised by a commission of inquiry led by retired Judge Ian Farlam.

In June, Zuma released the report of the Farlam Commission. It recommended the board of inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office after finding fault with the police’s “tactical” plan to deal with the striking miners.

The Farlam Commission also found the police had misled it about its plans on the day of the deadly shootings.

The terms of reference of the Claassen Inquiry include investigating whether Phiyega, acting with others in the South African Police Service leadership structures, “misled the Commission” by hiding the fact that they had authorised the “tactical option” during a management meeting on the day before the killings.

The Claassen Inquiry is also investigating whether Phiyega, while taking the decision to go the tactical route, could have foreseen the “tragic and catastrophic consequences which ensued”.

African News Agency

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