Johannesburg - The Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding 44 deaths during strike-related unrest at Marikana last year has been postponed until Wednesday.
In a statement on Sunday, head of the evidence leaders Geoff Budlender SC said his team had not been able to examine the police evidence.
“As a result of (a) power failure at the SA Police Services' (SAPS) Centurion office, there has been a delay in accessing the materials which the SAPS are making available to the evidence leaders,” he said.
“Certain of the materials will at best be made available before the end of this week. They then need to be examined by the evidence leaders.”
He said that because of this, the commission could not proceed on Monday as previously announced.
On Wednesday, Budlender asked that the commission to be postponed until Monday to allow his team to examine the police evidence.
In Lt-Col Duncan Scott's version on the police hard drive, “some documents have been added and some files we haven't seen before”, Budlender told the commission.
He said the police team had been co-operative, but that the process of going through the evidence “could take some time”.
This information was necessary before Scott's cross-examination could continue.
The commission, which is sitting in Centurion, is investigating the circumstances surrounding the police's killing of 34 mainly striking mineworkers near Lonmin's platinum mine at Marikana on August 16, 2012, and the deaths of 10 people, including two policemen and two security guards, the previous week.
The commission was established by President Jacob Zuma shortly after the unrest.
Sapa