#Phiyega probe: Top cop loses round one
04 May 2016 at 07:29am
By: TANKISO MAKHETHA
Credit: PRETORIA NEWS
Suspended national police
commissioner General Riah Phiyega leaving the SA Law Reform Commission offices
in Centurion on the first day of the Claassen Board of Inquiry into her fitness
to hold office. Picture: Oupa Mokoena
Pretoria - Legal teams of both suspended national police
commissioner General Riah Phiyega and evidence leaders stamped their authority
early on as the Claassen Board of Inquiry kicked off in Centurion on Tuesday.
The board is investigating Phiyega’s fitness to hold office, as
recommended by the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the 2012 Marikana
massacre.
The first witnesses are due to take the stand on Wednesday
morning, but retired Judge Neels Claassen was called on to make two rulings on
Tuesday.
He ruled in favour of the evidence leaders on two preliminary
points raised by the top cop’s legal team.
Evidence leaders would be allowed to call witnesses who did not
testify at the Farlam commission. They could also use evidence that was not
utilised during the Farlam commission, he ruled.
This includes the letter written by Phiyega to President Jacob
Zuma criticising the commission’s findings on the role she had played on the
day of the massacre.
Phiyega’s counsel argued against a request by the evidence
leaders, led by advocate Ismail Jamie SC, to bring in more witnesses to
testify.
Jamie argued that the terms of reference of the inquiry needed
to be broadened. As such, he said evidence leaders would like to determine
whether they could recall witnesses who testified during the Farlam commission.
However, advocate William Mokhari SC, for Phiyega, countered
that this would extend the scope of the inquiry, and that the inquiry was not
about Phiyega’s fitness to hold office, but the findings made in Farlam
commission report.
“The evidence leaders are bound by the terms of reference which
established this inquiry and therefore are not permitted to call witnesses,”
Mokhari said.
He also argued that the evidence leaders should have returned to
Zuma if they wished to extend the scope of the inquiry.
“The manner in which the evidence leaders have presented their
argument is that you (Judge Claassen) must make your ruling in the abstract.
That they are entitled to call witnesses, but it can’t be,” Mokhari argued.
“They must be able to say we have the evidence of the following
people and we are asking for a ruling whether we can adduce that evidence
because there is an objection to that. They are not doing that,” he said.
But the judge said: “In my view, the concession made by Mr
Mokhari that evidence leaders would be entitled to call witnesses is a correct
concession. This inquiry is in a nature of a disciplinary inquiry, and in such
disciplinary proceedings witnesses will be called by employer and employee.”
Judge Claassen earlier said Mokhari made an allowance that
evidence leaders would be entitled to call witnesses.
In so doing, Judge Claassen said witnesses would have to give
testimonies that were within the scope of the inquiry and its objectives.
On the second point, Judge Claassen said representations by
Phiyega to Zuma following the Farlam commission had completed its task was
relevant to the inquiry after she attempted to expunge herself from wrongdoing.
“It would be absurd to suggest that her statement is irrelevant
to these proceedings.
“The evidence leaders would be entitled to refer to matters
which occurred after the (Marikana) commission,” Judge Claassen said.
The country’s top cop was suspended last year by Zuma after
allegations of misconduct contained in the Farlam commission report.
Zuma established the board of inquiry last year after the
commission headed by retired Judge Ian Farlam incriminated Phiyega and other
senior police officers in the killing of 34 mineworkers in August 16, 2012. The
commission investigated the deaths of 44 people who were killed during labour
unrest at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana in August 2012.
The evidence leaders are expected to call four witnesses when
the hearings resume on Wednesday.
The Farlam Commission had heard that police officers ordered
four mortuary vehicles to be on the hills at Marikana, hours before the
shootings.
tankiso.makhetha@inl.co.za
Pretoria News
