Pretoria - The wife of Warrant Officer Sello Leepaku, who
was killed during a confrontation with Marikana miners in 2012, and critically
wounded Lieutenant Shitumo Solomon Baloyi await justice, the Farlam Commission of
Inquiry heard on Thursday.
Louis Gumbi, for Leepaku's family and Baloyi,
cross-examined North West police air wing commander Lieutenant Colonel Salmon
Vermaak at the commission's public hearings in Pretoria on Thursday.
"The client I represent in this commission, when he
was killed, had 23 years of experience as a public order policing [POP] member.
He did not have disciplinary action against him and he had two loyalty medals.
"My second client, Lieutenant Baloyi, had around 23
years as a POP member and was mobilised that day from Pretoria. My mandate from
the family of Leepaku, especially his wife, is that we leave no stone unturned
around the death of Warrant Officer Leepaku," said Gumbi.
He said Baloyi, who sustained almost nine stab wounds
during a confrontation with protesters at Lonmin's platinum mining operations
at Marikana, near Rustenburg in North West, on 13 August 2012, wanted the
truth.
"He says we must leave no stone unturned surrounding
his injury. We are going to do that and since the beginning of this commission
we have stuck to that mandate," said Gumbi.
He said Baloyi would testify at the inquiry, but senior
SA Police Service officers had attempted to thwart his testimony.
"He will also testify, as you [Vermaak] testified in
this commission, how you were intimidated by senior management of the SAPS to
adduce evidence in this commission.
"He will testify about how he was intimidated by
senior police officers in the SAPS when he wanted to present his own
independent evidence about what transpired on the 13th."
Intimidation
claims
At that stage, commission chairperson, retired Judge Ian
Farlam, told Gumbi to file supplementary affidavits before dealing with
Baloyi's intimidation claims.
Gumbi said Baloyi contended there was a lack of
intelligence gathering when police officers were deployed to manage the crowd
of miners armed with traditional weapons.
"The version of Lieutenant Baloyi is that
information that General [William] Mpembe had regarding the group of strikers
who had performed rituals with a sangoma, such information was supposed to be
conveyed to officers.
"Such information was supposed to be conveyed to
members in advance but on that day it was never conveyed. That information was
important so that members, especially from Pretoria, [would] know the group
they were going to confront."
Vermaak said critical information should have been
relayed to the intervening officers.
Mpembe is North West deputy provincial police
commissioner. He was in charge of the intervention at the Marikana strike.
Leepaku was one of two policemen hacked to death when
miners attacked police on 13 August 2012. Warrant Officer Tsietsi Monene was
shot and also hacked to death that day. Baloyi was repeatedly stabbed.
Three days later, on 16 August, police shot dead 34
people, mostly protesting miners, at the mine.
At least 78 miners were wounded when police fired on a
group gathered at a hill near the mine while allegedly trying to disarm and
disperse them.
In the preceding week, 10 people, including Leepaku and
Monene, and two security guards, were killed in the strike-related violence.
The commission is probing the 44 deaths.
