Rustenburg - Police had continued firing even after an order to cease fire on August 16, after the first Marikana tragedy victims were shot dead.
This was said on Monday at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry.
The legal representative of those arrested during the August 16 shootings, advocate Dali Mpofu, argued on Monday that because there had been an order to cease fire, it meant that the danger had abated.
“If it can be shown that there was further shooting after ceasefire [was ordered], then that shooting was unwarranted,” he said.
At this point, commission chair and retired Judge Ian Farlam jumped right in and confirmed that from videos seen by the commission, “there were shots fired” after the cease fire order.
Mpofu also questioned the presence of the tactical response teams, saying they were not needed at the Marikana strike on the day of the shooting.
He also quizzed police training co-ordinator Brigadier Petrus Johannes Breytenbach on whether or not guns were allowed to be used in a crowd management situations.
Breytenbach said although public order policing officers’ main tool were rubber bullet shotguns, they were also issued with standard service pistols in case they needed to protect themselves in dangerous encounters.
Earlier, human rights lawyer Advocate George Bizos’s questions had been concerned with police training and the various police ministers’ statements since 1994.
He had also addressed Breytenbach on police demilitarisation and its general transformation after 1994.
Bizos quoted former safety and security minister Steve Tshwete’s statement in June 1999. “He said: ‘We’re going to deal with criminals as a bulldog dealing with a bull.’ ”
He quoted another minister of the same department, Charles Nqakula, saying in 2002: “Anyone who points a firearm at the police will be killed by police officers.”
Breytenbach said he believed the statements were made at a time when police killings were rife.
“In our law, police are not entitled to shoot into the crowd indiscriminately just because they believe someone there has a firearm and can discharge,” Bizos said. “We intend showing that alternative action could have been taken in Marikana.”
Bizos said Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa had released a policy guideline document last year on the policing of protests, public gatherings and events.
He said the document had been clear that the “use of excessive force must be avoided at all costs”.
“Haven’t police been told not to shoot indiscriminately into the crowd without an order from their superior?” Bizos asked.
Breytenbach said officers could use their discretion when in imminent danger.
He later said in response to a question that the police were trained to follow instructions, but were not robots who followed instructions blindly.
The Star