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South African Commission: Police Lied About Killing Miners During Pay Strikes

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A policeman gestures in front of some of the dead miners after they were shot outside a South African mine in RustenburgAccording to AFP, “A South African commission of inquiry accused police of lying about the shooting dead of 34 striking miners in Marikana last year, in a searing criticism of their conduct Thursday.”

“We have obtained documents which in our opinion demonstrate that the (police) version of the events at Marikana. is in material respects not the truth,” the commission said after gaining access to police hard drives.

Law enforcers say they were acting in self defense against armed miners.

But the commission accused police of falsifying and hiding documents, concealing evidence and giving a false account of events.

“We have obtained documents which give the impression that they are contemporaneous documents, but which appear in fact to have been constructed after the events to which they refer,” the commission’s investigators said.

“Absent a convincing explanation, the material which we have found has serious consequences for the further conduct of the work of this commission,” it added.

“We do not make this statement lightly,” the inquiry said.

National police spokesman Solomon Makgale called the statement “unfortunate and highly prejudicial.”

According to South African police, known as SAPs:

“The commission, sitting in Centurion, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West last year.

“Police shot dead 34 people, almost all of them striking mineworkers, while trying to disperse and disarm them on August 16, 2012. Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

“President Jacob Zuma established the commission shortly after the unrest.”

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