Phiyega's defence loaded with blanks

31 July 2015 - 02:10 By Graeme Hosken

National police commissioner General Riah Phiyega will today begin her defence of the "indefensible" when she responds to President Jacob Zuma on recommendations that her fitness to hold office be investigated. The Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana massacre gave her until today to respond to the commission's findings.Analysts believe she has very little room to manoeuvre, with the fact that she took office only two months before the 2012 massacre being her only plausible excuse.Gareth Newham - the head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies - said it would be hard for Phiyega to "defend the indefensible".He said: "She will have to prove that the commission, chaired by a retired judge, supported by two senior advocates, who in turn were supported by six advocates acting as evidence leaders, who all carefully considered her evidence - given over 21 days - and thousands of documents eventually submitted by police, were wrong."She will then have to produce evidence to show this and explain why she did not provide this evidence to the commission."Newham said Phiyega would have to respond to two findings in particular - failing "in her constitutional duty to avoid loss of life through the unnecessary use of force" and the ruling that she gave untruthful testimony and was party to constructing false and misleading evidence.Political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said he believed she would use as her defence her short time in office prior to the massacre and the fact that the strike was a "labour failure" and a problem the police inherited, though it was not of their making."Phiyega will argue that the insinuations that she is guilty of murder ... unfairly created a climate in which she was charged, sentenced and hanged in the court of public opinion and that the commission played to the public gallery."He said the manner in which the police responded to the strike suggested a patent lack of strategic and tactical leadership.He added: "As head of the police the buck ultimately stops with her. But what is strange is that in terms of the commission's harsh findings the buck stops with the 'smaller buck' [Phiyega] and not the police minister."The problem is that at the moment neither the commission, in terms of its findings, nor Phiyega, in terms of her ineptitude in response to the strike, have much credibility. That's because the findings leave a lot to be desired."..

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