Suspended national police commissioner Riah Phiyega is not fit to hold office and must be fired for mishandling the police’s response to a mining strike in Marikana, the Claassen board of inquiry has found.
The report’s damning findings and recommendations against Phiyega were made public for the first time on Thursday in the portfolio committee on police after it resolved to declassify it.
Phiyega has petitioned the high court to review the report.
President Jacob Zuma, who got the report in mid-December and sent it to Parliament, has studied its contents, but he has not said how he will implement its recommendations.
The Claassen inquiry found Phiyega guilty of serious misconduct and breach of her duty in managing and controlling the police’s response to the August 2012 unprotected platinum sector strike in Marikana, in which 44 people died.
The 78-page report paints Phiyega as an unsatisfactory witness, who provided vague responses to questions about the tactical option the police had devised to handle the scene where mine workers had congregated during the strike.
"Her attempt to avoid taking responsibility for the conduct of the police at Marikana by denying that she took the decision [to implement the tactical option] has tainted her evidence to the extent that her credibility is in serious doubt," reads the report.
The report — penned by Judge Neels Claassen and advocates Sibusiso Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee — said that Phiyega’s remarks in the days after the Marikana tragedy that the police involved had demonstrated "the best in possible policing" were not in keeping with her duties.
Advocate William Mokhari SC, who represented Phiyega at the Farlam commission, confirmed on Thursday that the suspended national police commissioner’s lawyers had filed an application in the High Court in Pretoria to have the Claassen report reviewed and set aside.
Sandile July — Phiyega’s attorney — told Business Day that the report’s interpretation
of the law, as well as the
roles of the national commissioner and provincial commissioner in the Marikana matter, was problematic.
"We are reviewing both on the basis of the internal contradiction. The Claassen findings contradict the Farlam findings without any evidence to support the changes. Farlam says provincial commissioner [Zukiswa] Mbombo did the
tactical [option] but Claassen said it was Phiyega," said July.
Mbombo retired in 2015.
July said the provincial commissioner was in charge of provincial operations, according to the South African Police Service Act and the national commissioner could only intervene after receiving a directive from the president, which was not done in this case, he said.
magubanek@businesslive.co.za
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