Lawyers want Marikana commission moved
2013-02-26 18:17
Rustenburg - An application to move the venue of the
ongoing public hearings of the Marikana inquiry from Rustenburg was brought
before the Farlam commission on Tuesday.
Dali Mpofu, for mineworkers arrested on 16 August, asked
the commission chairperson, retired judge Ian Farlam, to move the hearings to a
place close to either Pretoria or Johannesburg.
Mpofu said there had been one extension of the
commission’s deadline and it was likely there was going to be another
extension.
"Already there has been one extension until the end
of May 2013. Some of us are not optimistic that we will meet that second
deadline," he said.
"It seems probable that another extension will be
taken. We are faced with the reality that this commission can run into the
second half of the year."
He said the lawyers were incurring numerous costs,
including the huge travelling time to Rustenburg and the less time to hold
consultations.
Mpofu said his legal team "conservatively costs
around R50 000 to run" per day.
Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, for the families of the deceased
mineworkers, also requested a change of venue.
Earlier, Farlam said considerations to move the venue
could only be made by him in consultation with the Minister of Justice Jeff
Radebe.
Farlam said he would arrange a meeting with the minister.
On Tuesday, the commission concluded the
cross-examination of Siphethe Phatsha, a survivor of the Marikana shootings
which left 34 people dead.
Phatsha told the commission a police Nyala knocked down
protesters near a hill in Marikana, near Rustenburg, on 16 August.
He said he ran to escape from the police vehicle.
"I was running towards higher ground. I was afraid
of that hippo [referring to the Nyala] so I wanted to run away, but my injured
toe was very painful," he told the commission.
A lawyer representing the Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union (AMCU) asked Phatsha to explain why he was afraid of the police
vehicle.
"It was bumping into people running against it. The
people it bumped into were falling down," he said.
Hearings
The commission is holding hearings in Rustenburg, North
West, as part of its inquiry into the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected
strike at Lonmin Platinum's mine in Marikana last year.
On 16 August, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and
78 were injured when the police opened fire while trying to disperse a group
which had gathered on a hill near the mine.
Ten people, including two police officers and two
security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.
In August, President Jacob Zuma announced the
establishment of the judicial commission of inquiry and tasked it with
investigating the cause of the violence of August 16 and the preceding,
strike-related events.
The commission is now mandated to wrap up its
investigations by 31 May, and will have six weeks to submit its final report to
Zuma.
- SAPA
