NUM cross-examines miner
2013-03-12 15:44
Rustenburg - One of the miners wounded at Marikana last
year was cross-examined at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, in Rustenburg on
Tuesday.
Karel Tip SC, for the National Union of Mineworkers
(NUM), started the hearing on Tuesday by asking to show the commission video
footage.
The inquiry's chairperson, retired judge Ian Farlam,
asked: "Is the video likely to cause distress?"
Tip assured the commission it would not, and said the
footage had been shown to the commission before.
On Monday, Farlam asked that videos of the police
shooting the miners not be shown unless necessary.
Farlam said Lonmin miner Mzoxolo Magidiwana's life had
taken a "dramatic turn" during the shooting and that watching the
clip was causing "tremendous emotional turmoil for him".
The commission was adjourned when Magidiwana broke down
during cross-examination last week.
The footage on Tuesday showed hundreds of mineworkers
gathered at a hill in Marikana.
They sat while being addressed.
Tip pointed out a gap in the group.
Magidiwana said it was there for delivery vehicles to
bring food to the workers.
When Tip asked him why the mineworkers in the front of
the group were dressed more warmly than the group behind the gap, Magidiwana
said it had to do with the weather.
"People who dressed heavily did so because it was
cold in the morning," he said through an interpreter.
Cross-examination
This is the second day this week that Magidiwana has
given evidence on his version of the 16 August Marikana shooting and the events
leading up to it.
On Monday, Tip tried, in his cross-examination, to gain
clarity on why miners at Lonmin's platinum operation, who were not rock drill
operators, embarked on an illegal strike last August.
Before the commission was adjourned, it heard that
Magidiwana was not a rock drill operator, but that all Lonmin workers wanted
R12 500 a month and went on an illegal strike in demand of the increased wage.
The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during
the strike at the mine in Marikana last year.
On 16 August, 34 strikers were shot dead and 78 were
injured when the police opened fire while trying to disperse a group 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.
- SAPA
