Rustenburg - The police's operational plan for the Marikana unrest was a compilation of the input of all the commanders involved in the mission to disperse and disarm the striking workers, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Monday.
Maj-Gen Charl Annandale denied that the so-called “Scott plan” was the work of only one policeman, Lt-Col Duncan Scott.
However, Dumisa Ntsebeza, for the families of the deceased miners, put it to him that the reluctance to admit it was Scott's plan was because “professionally, he wasn't the person meant to formulate the plan for Marikana”.
“You decided on Scott because he had certain qualities.... There's nowhere 1/8in Scott's statement and plan 3/8 that says what input from 1/8the police commanders 3/8 he used in the plan,” said Ntsebeza.
Scott had also frequently used the term “I” in the plan.
Annandale told the commission, which is sitting at the Rustenburg Civic Centre, he did not know why Scott had omitted to credit the commanders for their input.
Earlier, Ntsebeza asked Annandale whether he would have been prepared to reveal anything to the commission which would embarrass the police.
“Would you be prepared, since you are under oath and have vowed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing else but the truth, to break rank and say 1/8the video material does exist 3/8?” asked Ntsebeza.
He was referring to video footage he claimed police might have failed to hand in to the commission because they feared it would incriminate them.
Most of the video material used in the commission was taken from the media.
“It's remarkable that all the material we have is from sources other than the police,” said Ntsebeza.
Annandale said he had indeed been true to the oath he made to the commission.
The commission, which is chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 people killed in the unrest last year.
Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers in Marikana on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week. - Sapa