The Farlam Commission into the Marikana mine killings
continues to be the vehicle for revealing the most shocking information about
what happened at the place called Small Koppie on 16 August.
On Monday, Captain Jeremiah Apollo Mohlaki, crime scene
investigator, was presented with two sets of images taken at the scene. The
first set was taken while there was still daylight and showed the dead miners,
few of whom had weapons near them. The commission then presented corresponding
images of the same miners with traditional and hand-made weapons close by, even
on top of the dead strikers.
One really does not need Mohlaki's own admission - and that
of the police counsel Ishmael Semenya – to understand that the police had
doctored the crime. The police at the scene were trying to make their claim of
self-defence plausible. One understands this behaviour, inasmuch as any
perpetrator will lie about their crimes.
Yet here we have an expert whose job is to gather evidence
for prosecution apparently going along with this subversion of justice. Why?
It is clear from the records of the day that senior
officers, including Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega, were at Marikana through
most the day of the 16th. It is inconceivable that these same officers – from
the generals down – were not at the site of Small Koppie before the sun has set
on that bloodiest of days. They must have seen the Scene 2, or had other
high-ranking brother officers report to them on it, before the tampering.
During the nine-day bosberaad or indaba held in
Potchefstroom to plan the police submission to the commission, these same high
ranking officers would have watched the before-and-after footage. They would
have been aware of how the scene looked before those dangerous weapons were so
evocatively placed – if not first hand, then from both the police stills and
the video footage. There would have been frank discussions about what happened
that day.
Did these top cops then say, "Hey okes, bafana,
magents, this is wrong, you are subverting the justice we are sworn to
uphold?"
Seems not.
It appears that the nine days were spent, at the taxpayers'
cost, planning a strategy to extricate the police from culpability for what
they had done at Marikana. It might have been here that they decided to try to
intimidate witnesses by arresting and torturing them. If not, then why have the
revelations of this brutality not seen any of the officers who tortured the
miners arrested for assault?
The commission heard from the police that Phiyega became
aware that the crime scene might have been tampered with two weeks ago and had
launched an investigation. Two weeks and five days ago Phiyega was laughing and
joking during the hearings as footage of police killing miners was shown.
So when we hear the phrase "two weeks" out of the
police counsel's mouth, is that perhaps a little over two weeks? What does a
newly appointed civilian with a business reputation have to gain by abetting
police crimes and cover-ups? Who is she beholden to – the police or the
country?
And then there is the Independent Police Investigative
Directorate (IPID), the cops who are there to monitor the cops, the people who
protect us from the rotten apples. They were called, apparently, to Marikana
that same day. When exactly did they arrive on the scene? Their investigation
included taking statements from wounded and arrested miners who were
eyewitnesses to what happened, as well as from the policemen whose weapons
fired the bullets that killed those men. IPID has access to all the evidence –
including those before and after images at Small Koppie. They must have been
aware – for months – of how police were trying to cover up the crime scene.
Why were those police officers not suspended while the
investigations continued? Why have the superiors in charge not been suspended?
As far as we are aware, there is no reason for justice to be
put on hold while the commission is in progress. Indeed, the police and
National Prosecuting Authority have most definitely not been sitting on their
hands, if the wave of arrests and court appearances of miners is anything to go
by. In fact, some of those hands have been pretty busy, beating miners in
custody.
Yet IPID did nothing. (Or at least nothing we as Joe Public
can see.) What we see is that police are a law unto themselves. That they – and
their political bosses – are above any rules and regulations; they are above
South Africa's constitution.
The message is crystal clear: our government will back the
boys and girls in blue above any constitutional rights of our citizens. The
police will quell any popular movement by the underclass that threatens the
interests of the political, labour or business elite.
The police are acting with impunity. Their political masters
are acting with impunity.
In the South Africa of 2012, if you are poor and without
political clout, you are on your own.
