By Mark Lewis (mlewisphotovideo.com) (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
A senior police officer has said there was missing footage from a video shown to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry taken of the Marikana incident, which occurred on August 13 last year.
The Marikana incident involved the killing of 34 miners during a “wildcat strike” in August last year by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
William Mpembe, North West province deputy chief major general, remembered the day the striking mine workers from Lonmin attacked two police officers by hacking them to death.
“There is a gap, the camera could not work from a distance,” News24 quoted him as telling the commission in Centurion, Pretoria. This, according to Mpembe, was due to the camera used to record the footage being old.
According to News24’s report, the video went blank after a mechanical fault occurred when the police officer filming the incident began moving on foot in an attempt to follow the striking workers.
The police officer in question then reportedly got into a police vehicle and continued recording.
Ian Farlam, retired judge and the commission chairperson, then asked Mpembe questions regarding the happenings the camera did not record as well as the timeframe of the gap.
Mpembe replied by saying: “The movement of the people and also the shooting of a stun grenade [happened].”
Mpembe reportedly could not estimate the time of the gap, but said both tear gas and the stun grenade were fired shortly after the gap in the footage or mechanical fault occurred.
The footage shows a group of armed men crouching and knocking their weapons against each other and on the ground to make a noise as they moved along. The clip reportedly shows the armed men ululating before they attacked the two police officers in question.
However, when questioned on the ululating, Mpembe said he did not hear any ululating, nor did he see people wielding “such dangerous weapons”.
span>The striking miners were being escorted to a hill when the tear gas was fired at them, which was apparently the reason for the attack on the two police officers, leaving a third injured.
Mpembe said he did not give the order to fire the tear gas.
The Farlam Commission is currently probing the deaths of the 34 mine workers, the two police officers and two security guards.
