Clashes as bishop stands firm on Marikana claims

25 November 2012 - 02:09 By MONICA LAGANPARSAD
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
INTERVENTION: Anglican Bishop of Pretoria Johannes Seoka
INTERVENTION: Anglican Bishop of Pretoria Johannes Seoka

RELIGION and egos clashed this week in a debate over mistrust and whether the killings at Marikana could have been avoided.

As it began its second month of sittings in Rustenburg in North West, the Marikana commission of inquiry began to heat up.

The Anglican Bishop of Pretoria, Johannes Seoka, who is also president of the South African Council of Churches, was cross-examined on his criticism of Lonmin and his statement that the police were untrustworthy.

A few hours before police opened fire on more than 3000 striking miners on August 16, Seoka had gone as a peace negotiator to the koppie where they had gathered.

He told the commission that, after he spoke to workers, he advised Lonmin management to talk to their employees but they refused, and instead labelled them ''criminals and murderers".

Seoka said he believed that if Lonmin management had acknowledged the miners' request for a meeting, the tragedy could have been avoided.

''It was an opportunity for talk and intervention," he said,

He said he went to Marikana because, ''something had to be done to stop further deaths". At that stage 10 people had already been killed.

Advocate Schalk Burger SC, representing, Lonmin grilled Seoka about his claims.

Burger argued that the area was not safe for Lonmin. Seoka responded: ''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."

The bishop was taken to task by advocate Ishmael Semenya, representing the police, about his remark that the police could not be trusted.

Said Semenya: ''You tell us that in your 40 years as a priest, police in this country can never be trusted. That's a very harsh and extreme opinion ...

" Police have over 170000 members. You are not referring to these people as untrustworthy, are you?"

Seoka replied: "I am saying, not all of them."

Semenya asked the bishop to retract his statement. Seoka said it would be difficult to do so and insisted that police officers could not be trusted.

Seoka listed examples of his experiences with police that had led to his mistrust. They included an unwillingness to investigate crimes, harsh treatment of underage detainees and an inability to effectively take statements.

Seoka apologised later in the proceedings when advocate Louis Gumbi, representing the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union , presented figures of policemen and -wome n who had died in the line of duty.

"I did not mean all police officers in South Africa are untrustworthy," Seoka said.

"Don't you think the best is to retract that statement and apologise to those widows and children of those killed in the line of duty?" Gumbi asked him.

He said the widows of the two policemen killed in the days leading up to August 16 were in the public gallery.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now