Anglicans support Marikana inquiry

From left: advocate Pingla Hemraj, Marikana commission chairman Ian Farlam and advocate Bantubonke Tokota are seen during the first week of the inquiry at the Civic Centre in Rustenburg in the North West, Wednesday, 3 October 2012. The judicial commission of inquiry into the shooting at Lonmin platinum mine was postponed on Wednesday. Lawyers representing the different parties unanimously decided to postpone the matter to 9am on October 22. Thirty-four miners were killed and 78 wounded when police opened fire on them while trying to disperse protesters near the mine in Marikana on August 16. Picture: SAPA stringer

From left: advocate Pingla Hemraj, Marikana commission chairman Ian Farlam and advocate Bantubonke Tokota are seen during the first week of the inquiry at the Civic Centre in Rustenburg in the North West, Wednesday, 3 October 2012. The judicial commission of inquiry into the shooting at Lonmin platinum mine was postponed on Wednesday. Lawyers representing the different parties unanimously decided to postpone the matter to 9am on October 22. Thirty-four miners were killed and 78 wounded when police opened fire on them while trying to disperse protesters near the mine in Marikana on August 16. Picture: SAPA stringer

Published Oct 2, 2013

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Johannesburg - The Anglican Church Southern Africa (ACSA) supports the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana shootings, the church said on Wednesday.

“ACSA passed a motion of support for the work of the... commission of inquiry,” the church said in a statement, after its provincial synod meeting on Wednesday.

The commission's chairman, retired Judge Ian Farlam, was also a chancellor for the church.

“[The church] described his work as both 'responsible' and 'challenging', as he steers the inquiry into the massacre of August 2012.”

The commission, sitting in Centurion, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin's platinum mining operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West last year.

Police shot dead 34 people, mostly striking mineworkers, on August 16, 2012.

Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

President Jacob Zuma established the commission shortly after the shootings.

It first sat in October last year and, after numerous delays and several extensions, was scheduled to conclude its work at the end of October this year.

On Thursday, Farlam said he had asked for a another extension. Zuma had agreed, and a new deadline to conclude proceedings would be announced later.

The commission was adjourned and set to continue on October 14.

Sapa

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