Fingers were pointed in every direction at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana shooting on Monday. With transport for the victims now seemingly sorted out to an extent, proceedings got underway in Rustenburg with opening statements by the representatives of the various groups.

These provided the first glimpse of what we can expect in the weeks to come. In the statement made on behalf of the SAPS, Ishmael Semenya SC, their representative, said that the tragic shooting could have been avoided had all players in the volatile situation at Marikana stuck to their roles:

Evidence will show that in July 2012 Lonmin struck a deal with workers outside the bargaining processes. […] This inconsistent approach must have sent mixed messages to protesters.

He alleges that this inconsistency by Lonmin “created a beast that [Lonmin] later found impossible to tame.” NUM representation agreed with this, saying that the unilateral negotiation processes undermined the processes agreed on by workers.

Lonmin, on the other hand, pointed the finger back at the SAPS, who it says was under control of the area and therefore responsible for controlling the crowds.

Finally, Dumisa Ntsebeza, on behalf of the families of the victims, summed it up quite nicely in his appeal for a declaration that the killing of the mineworkers by the SAPS was unlawful.

After what was described as a show of force, the SAPS sought to encircle and entrap workers and block the miners’ likely dispersal route to the Nkaneng informal settlement.

It was this event, and this event alone, which precipitated the movement of strikers off the mountain. They had no choice but to move down the mountain. In those circumstances, death and injury were predictable.

Less predictable is that some of these miners were shot in the back while they were charging at the police. The use of automatic rifles is surprising, especially despite lack of evidence that workers were carrying heavy arms.

We are now only just at the beginning of what looks like will be a long and difficult inquiry. Only time will tell if we’re going to figure out exactly what happened at Marikana.

[Source BDLive]