Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma has joined as a respondent in the legal bid by suspended police commissioner General Riah Phiyega to set aside the recommendations and findings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into Marikana.
The commission was set up by Zuma to investigate the events at the Lonmin mine in August 2012, which led to the deaths of 44 people.
Phiyega is challenging the findings in as far as they relate to her alleged conduct during the tragic events.
She is also challenging the findings of the subsequent Claassen Board of Inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
The two applications were earlier filed at the high court in Pretoria, and will be heard sometime this year (on a date still to be confirmed by the court).
Zuma, through his legal team, meanwhile, this week obtained permission from the court to intervene in the proceedings related to the Farlam Commission. It was argued on his behalf that he had a direct interest in the outcome of the case.
Retired Judge Ian Farlam, who chaired the commission, and the commissioners, advocates Pingla Devi Hemraj and Bantubonke Tokota, were cited as respondents in Phiyega’s application.
The commission, in a report issued to Zuma, made a number of damning findings against Phiyega, which led to her suspension on full pay pending the Claassen Board of Inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
Retired Judge Neels Claassen found Phiyega wasn’t fit to hold office and that she should be dismissed as she had “lied” to the Farlam commission.
Phiyega is challenging the findings of both commissions, during which it was, among others, found that she was to blame for the bloodshed.
Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett SC, meanwhile, this week argued on behalf of Zuma that he was an interested party in the court proceedings and should be heard as he had the power to both appoint the national police head as well as commissions of inquiry.
He was thus vested with the constitutional authority to act on recommendations which may bear on Phiyega’s continued appointment.
Gauntlett said the main application (the challenge against the Farlam Commission’s findings) was likely to have an effect on the findings made by the Claassen Board of Inquiry.
The court was also told that Phiyega, in her applications, referred to the conversations she had with Zuma and written submissions she had made to him, which led to the establishment of the Claassen Board of Inquiry.
The civil claims brought by some of the surviving miners and the families of the injured and deceased miners in Marikana cited the president and various other government departments as respondents.
Gauntlett said that if the court decided to set aside the findings and recommendations of the Farlam Commission’s report, it would have a direct impact on Zuma.
It was necessary to join the president in the proceedings so that he could be heard.