SA prosecuting authority studies General Mpembe’s Marikana acquittal

Former North West deputy police commission William Mpembe and three other senior policemen were found not guilty in a case relating to the 2012 Marikana shooting.

RUSTENBURG, March 30 (ANA) – South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said it was studying the decision by the North West high court to acquit four senior policemen charged over the death of a miner in an incident related to the 2012 Marikana killings.

North West deputy judge president Ronald Hendricks on Monday acquitted former North West police deputy commissioner Major-General William Mpembe, Brigadier Gideon van Zyl, Colonel Dingaan Madoda and Captain Oupa Pule on charges of contravening the Commissions Act, the Independent Police Directorate Act and defeating the ends of justice.

“The NPA will study the judgment in order to make an informed decision after the court found the four policemen not guilty of the three charges they were facing relating to the death of a miner in Marikana,” the authority’s spokesman in North West Henry Mamothame said in a statement.

Mpembe, van Zyl, Madoda and Pule were arrested in March 2018 after an investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) found that mine worker Modisaotsile van Wyk Sagalala died in police custody and not in hospital or at the scene where police shot dead 34 mine workers on August 16 2012 in Marikana during violent protests.

The State charged that the four had concealed the true circumstances around Sagalala’s death.

The mine worker, who had a gunshot wound in the chest and was handcuffed at the back, allegedly died in a police truck following his arrest with other miners. His body was discovered at a temporary detention centre set up by the police on the premises of mining company Lonmin, as the workers were being offloaded to be processed.

Paramedics certified him dead at the detention centre but police allegedly tried to pass it off that he had died in hospital. The four senior officers were accused of failing to report his death to IPID as required by law. The misrepresentation of facts around Sagalala’s death was allegedly also perpetuated at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, probing the Marikana killings.

The trial of Mpembe and other five policemen on other charges relating to the killings is set to resume at the North West High Court in April.

Mpembe faces charges over the murder of Semi Jokanisi, Tembelakhe Mati, Warrant Officer Hendrik Tsietsi Monene and Warrant Officer Sello Ronnie Lepaauku as well as the attempted murder of Zolile Honxo, Zwelitsha Mtshenwa, Muziwanele Mxinwa, Mzoxolo Zukulu and Sibongiseni Miya.

The former policeman is charged alongside retired Colonel Salmon Johannes Vermaak, Constable Nkosana Mguye, Warrant Officer Masilo Mogale, Warrant Officer Katlego Joseph Sekgweleya and Khazamola Phillip Makhubela, all accused of the murder of Pumzile Sokhanyile.

Mpembe faces other charges of defeating the ends of justice as well as contravening the Independent Police Directorate Act and the Commission Act

Vermaark further faces charges of defeating the ends of justice and contravening the Commission Act.

Mpembe and Vermaak were granted R5,000 (US$334) bail each while Mguye, Mogale, Sekgweleya and Makhubela were released on R2,000 bail each.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa