adminJohannesburg — Former police commissioner Bheki Cele says the Farlam Commission of Inquiry’s findings into the Marikana shooting should be released.
“It should be made public,” he said.“Some of us, our commissions were live and the results were there for everyone to read.”
Thirty-four people were killed near Lonmin’s platinum mine near Marikana, North West, when police tried to disperse striking miners on August 16, 2012. More than 78 people were injured. Ten people, including two police officers and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the previous week.
The commission’s report was handed to President Jacob Zuma at the end of last month. Cele is adamant that if he was police commissioner at the time, the shooting would never have happened.
“That one I guarantee, I put my head on the block. They would not have Marikana if I was still in the police. No matter what people throw at me, saying I taught the police how to shoot and all that, there would not be Marikana.”
Cele defended himself against those who would argue that he could say this because nothing of that magnitude happened while he was police commissioner.
He used examples such as the murder of AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche in Ventersdorp on April 3, 2010, which threatened to inflame racial tensions. — AP
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