adminJohannesburg — President Jacob Zuma must suspend all members of the South African Police Service implicated in the Marikana shooting immediately, pending further investigations, human rights group Amnesty International said yesterday.
“With police authorities closing ranks in the face of strong findings against them in the Farlam Commission report, it is vital that President Zuma shows strong leadership and takes action against those right at the top of the police service,” Amnesty’s Southern Africa Director Deprose Muchena said.
Muchena expected National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega to be at the top of that list.
Sunday will mark the third year since the shooting and no members of the police had been suspended or held to account. This was an unacceptable injustice to the families of the victims, he said.
“President Jacob Zuma must act now to ensure all of the Farlam Commission report’s key recommendations are implemented.
“The perpetrators of all the killings which occurred in that terrible week must be brought to justice.”
Thirty-four strikers were shot dead in Marikana, North West, on August 16, 2012. Ten people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the previous week.
President Jacob Zuma subsequently appointed retired Judge Ian Farlam to chair the judicial commission of inquiry into the violence.
The commission’s final report was handed to Zuma on March 31, who released it to the public on June 25. — AP
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