'Lonmin was in fighting mood'

Anglican Bishop Jo Seoka testified yesterday that the North West police top brass demonstrated "impatience" in dealing with the striking Lonmin miners.

He claimed that Lonmin's vice-president of human capital, Barnard Mokwena, was unwilling to "negotiate with those criminals".

Last week, Seoka told the Farlam Commission of Inquiry that he had gone to Marikana on August 16, just over an hour before the massacre, to talk to both the miners and management about the wage dispute.

After failing to convince the Lonmin management to meet the workers, he had received a call from the leader of the strikers at the time, Mgcineni "Mambush" Noki, who was later slain.

Noki's words over the phone - "Bishop, where are you? We are being killed by police" - haunted him to this day, the bishop said.

Yesterday, advocate Ishmael Semenya, representing the police, and Lonmin's advocate Schalk Burger tried to discredit Seoka's testimony.

They argued that it was unsafe for Lonmin officials to meet the protesters on that day.

They said the group of armed strikers had become increasingly "militant" and "volatile" in the days leading to the massacre.

Burger told Seoka he would call Mokwena to testify at the commission at a later stage.

"I will argue that it was not safe for Lonmin to go to the [koppie where workers were gathered] on August 16," he said.

In response, Seoka said: "It is actually very interesting to observe that the workers on the koppie did not show any anger, didn't use any strong language and what they wanted was to reach out.

"But what I got from Lonmin management was anger, strong language and denial," he said.

Seoka argued in his testimony last week that after driving to the koppie to speak to the workers - before the massacre - he had gone to Lonmin's office to convince management to go meet the workers.

Mokwena told him that the police had cordoned off the koppie as part of their operation to disperse the crowd.

Seoka said that when Mokwena had taken him to the police's Joint Operations Centre, the North West police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo, had treated him with "disrespect" and refused to listen to his proposal.

Mbombo is expected to testify at a later stage.

Semenya also grilled Seoka.

He put forward that Mbombo's actions were not disrespectful, and that she had been very "troubled" because she had been about to carry out a complex operation.

Semenya insisted that the protesters were increasingly "militant" especially on August 13, when two police officers and three protesters were killed.

The deaths occurred while Lieutenant-General William Mpembe, Mbombo's deputy, tried to disarm miners near Lonmin's Karee Shaft hostels.

In police footage played at the commission, Mpembe was seen trying to negotiate with a group of protesters and asking them to put down their weapons.

Seoka accused both Mpembe and Mbombo of being impatient in handling negotiations.

He said their conduct has been "desperate" and "unprofessional" and they had failed to control an explosive situation.