Pretoria -
Police misdiagnosed the situation at Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana during last year's unrest, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry was told on Thursday.
Dali Mpofu, for the wounded and arrested miners, said if police did not have the correct details of the conflict, they could not have had an accurate plan to resolve it.
“If I can prove at the end that there was a series of misdiagnoses of the situation, then the police's plan was doomed to fail,” he said.
Mpofu was cross-examining national police commissioner Riah Phiyega.
He said police did not appropriately address the situation, as they believed the unrest was largely associated with union rivalry. Workers, however, also wanted higher wages.
The commission, sitting in Centurion, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during the unrest.
Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers and security guards, were killed in the preceding week. - Sapa