STATEMENT BY MARIKANA COMMISSION OF INQUIRY
The statement issued by the spokesperson of the Commission on the 19th September 2013 did not (as appears therein) contain the views of the Commission. What it did contain were the submissions made to the Commission by Mr Geoff Budlender SC, the senior evidence leader, in support of an application for a postponement of the sittings of the Commission until Wednesday, 25 September 2013, to enable (1) the evidence leaders to work through the new material running into thousands of papers which had been made available by the South African Police Service and (2) the SAPS legal team to provide explanations on certain matters arising from the documents seen so far.
It is important to stress three facts:
(1) During the course of Mr Budlender's submissions he stated that in the opinion of the evidence leaders some of the documents obtained demonstrated that the SAPS version of the events of Marikana as described in its presentation and the evidence of SAPS witnesses in the Commission were in material respects not the truth. Mr Justice Farlam, the chairperson, said that that may not be so, whereupon Mr Budlender said it was a matter for the Commission, and not the evidence leaders, to decide ultimately.
(2) In granting the postponement sought, which was not opposed by the SAPS or any of the other parties present, Mr Justice Farlam said : "I think it appropriate to place on record these are at the moment only concerns, there are no findings made, these are matters that have to be looked at , and we don't know what the results of the examination of these points will be, but clearly from what you tell us, these are matters that require careful consideration, which I am sure they will receive."
(3) The Commission remains committed to keeping an open mind on the matters on which it has to make findings until the results of all the investigations, all the evidence and all submissions are before it.
Statement issued by the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, September 21 2013
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
