Marikana inquiry postponed

The Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the strike-related unrest at Marikana last year was adjourned on Wednesday.

 

 

Head evidence leader Geoff Budlender asked for the commission to  be postponed until Monday to allow his team to examine police

evidence.  In Lt-Col Duncan Scott's version on the police hard drive, "some  documents have been added and some files we haven't seen before",

Budlender told the commission.  "This raised questions about what other documents we might not have seen." Budlender said the police team had been co-operative, but that the process of going through the evidence "could take some time". This information was necessary before Scott's cross-examination could continue. There were no objections to Budlender's application for a postponement.

 

 

The commission's chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, said the application was well-motivated. The evidence leaders' preparations during the adjournment could help to save time during the cross-examination, he said. The commission, which is sitting in Centurion, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest near Lonmin's platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg, in North West, last year. Thirty-four people were shot dead, almost all of them striking mineworkers, on August 16, 2012, while police were trying to disperse them. Ten people, including two policemen and two security  guards, were killed in the preceding week. The commission was established by President Jacob Zuma shortly

after the unrest.

 

 

 -Sapa