While a lack of skilled, knowledgeable and competent leadership continues to plague the South African Police Service (Saps) a decade after the Marikana massacre of 34 striking miners, a security expert says it could have been prevented. Yesterday, the country marked the 10th anniversary of the Marika massacre. Gareth Newham, a senior fellow at the Institute for Security Studies who was part of the expert panel that compiled the report into police conduct, said the failures in the operation to end the bloody strike should serve as a lesson for Saps. These disadvantages included the use of large caliber ammunition,…
While a lack of skilled, knowledgeable and competent leadership continues to plague the South African Police Service (Saps) a decade after the Marikana massacre of 34 striking miners, a security expert says it could have been prevented.
Yesterday, the country marked the 10th anniversary of the Marika massacre. Gareth Newham, a senior fellow at the Institute for Security Studies who was part of the expert panel that compiled the report into police conduct, said the failures in the operation to end the bloody strike should serve as a lesson for Saps.
These shortcomings included the use of large-caliber ammunition instead of tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades.
“The turning point for Saps was to be able to ensure that the organization was run by only competent, qualified and experienced police officers – men and women of integrity – the fundamental change that had to happen,” he said.
Newham said high-risk tactical response units with automatic weapons should not have been deployed to intervene in crowd control.
“Only public order police units trained in crowd control and armed with less lethal weapons should have been sent to Marikana – if we had the necessary leadership at the top.
“The then national police commissioner, Rio Fiega, did not know what he was doing because the former police commissioner for the North West region, Lt. Gen. Zukiswa Mbomba, had no police experience.
Both did not follow the laws of the land. “They tried to mislead [retired Judge Ian] “Farlam stepped into the Marricane carnage when doubts arose about their integrity,” Newham said.
When asked whether any lessons had been learned from the Marikana incident, police spokeswoman Colonel Atlando Mathe said the Saps continued to implement “the recommendations of the Farlam Commission in relation to the training of members of the public order”.
“The organization continues to build capacity and provide operational facilities to ensure that Saps fulfills its constitutional mandate.”
Lirandzu Thembo, a spokesman for Police Minister Bheki Chele, said the training of public order officers was an “ongoing process at Saps, as well as increasing capacity and staffing”.
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“Saps also improves the relationship between the police and communities,” she said.
Painting a picture of what led up to the massacre, Newham said 600 heavily armed police, around 300 of them carrying R5 automatic weapons with an extra 4,000 rounds of ammunition and four mortuary vans, were ordered to kill people en masse. Marikana mine workers strike with intent to kill.
The police-led massacre at Marikana in post-democratic South Africa bore the hallmarks of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre during apartheid, which left 69 dead and 180 injured during a peaceful protest against pass laws.
The day before the massacre, Fiego convened a meeting of the national management forum, at which it was decided to continue the police operation the next day, Newham recalled: “The police began to surround the miners, cutting them off from the settlement, wrapping barbed wire between them. kopka and settlement.
“The dropping of tear gas and stun grenades from helicopters forced the workers to leave the mountain in the direction of the police, who then opened fire. What was very shocking about this decision was that the police knew before this operation that there would be bloodshed.
“They went in there knowing that people would be killed or injured. Yet they went ahead – something illegal in South Africa. Their job was to de-escalate violence and protect life and physical integrity.
But they went against it. They unleashed an operation they knew could lead to death.
“What we haven’t seen yet is these commanders being held accountable for what could possibly be a case of dolus eventualis [intentional] murder”.
– brians@citizen.co.za
