Cape Town - National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega has given President Jacob Zuma’s office reasons why she should not be suspended pending the outcome of a board of inquiry into her fitness to hold office, the presidency said on Monday.
“General Phiyega submitted her response on September 28 and these will be considered by the president,” Zuma’s office said.
Zuma established the board of inquiry in terms of Sections 9 (1) of the South Africa Police Service Act, 1995, last week.
Judge Cornelis Claasen would chair the three person board. He would be assisted by advocates Bernard Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee.
At the time, the Presidency said Zuma had provided Phiyega with the board’s terms of reference, and given her until September 28 to explain “why she should not be suspended pending the final determination of her fitness to hold office”.
Phiyega’s actions on August 16, 2012, when 34 miners were killed during a violent strike at the Lonmin mines in the North West in what’s believed to to be the biggest loss of life in a single police operation in post-apartheid South Africa, was heavily criticised by the Farlam commission of inquiry.
In June, Zuma released the report of the Farlam Commission. It recommended the board of inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office after finding fault with the police’s “tactical” plan to deal with the striking miners.
The commission also found the police had misled it about its plans on the day of the killings.
The terms of reference of the board of inquiry, Zuma’s office said would include investigating whether Phiyega, acting with others in the South African Police Service leadership structures, “misled the commission” by hiding the fact that they had authorised the “tactical option” during a management meeting on the day before the killings.
The board of inquiry would also investigate whether Phiyega, while taking the decision to go the tactical route, could have foreseen the “tragic and catastrophic consequences which ensued”.
ANA