The commission recommended, among others, that the South African police Services (Saps) be de-militarised and made ‘professional’ in terms of public order policing.
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Zuma will release the Marikana Commission of Inquiry’s report on the killings and is scheduled to address the nation through the public broadcaster SABC at 7 p.m. local time, which can be viewed on a live stream below.
Juba: President Jacob Zuma was on Thursday due to release the official report into the police killing of 34 South African striking workers at the Marikana mine in 2012, his office said.
President Zuma appeared to defend the police’s actions earlier this week, suggesting they were aimed at protecting people.
He says the commission also concluded that senior political leaders were not responsible for the killings.
“In addition, police leadership didn’t inform the Commission that the decision to go ahead with the tactical option, if the strikers didn’t voluntarily lay down their arms and disperse, was taken at the National Management Forum meeting on 15 August”. We should use it to build a more united, peaceful and cohesive society.
The commission found that the police operation should not have taken place on 16 August because of the defects in the plan.
Zuma says it can’t be said that deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa was the cause of the massacre and the allegations against him are ‘groundless’ and made no findings against Minister Susan Shabangu. Last month the miners who were injured and arrested during the massacre turned to the courts to force the president to release the report.
Days after the shooting, Zuma established the Farlam Commission of Inquiry to investigate the events at Marikana, with the power to recommend certain individuals be criminally charged.
Zuma was addressing students and Soshanguve community members at the Tshwane University of Technology, north of Pretoria, on Tuesday when he was heckled by a lone Economic Freedom Fighters member, who questioned why police killed Marikana mineworkers, City Press reported.
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On Wednesday, the Presidency, in defence of Zuma’s comment, said the President condemned all the deaths at Marikana equally.
