Judge Ian Farlam has delivered a fatal blow to the career of national police commissioner Riah Phiyega, urging that an inquiry be held into her fitness to hold office in light of the fatal shooting by the police of 34 striking miners at Marikana on August 16 2012. The events that day, on a koppie near the Wonderkop informal settlement, brought unprecedented shame on our young democracy as police wielding automatic rifles and pistols fired into massed strikers armed with home-made weapons who refused to disperse after a protracted, bloody strike.Like her predecessor, Bheki Cele, who lost his job over a leasing scandal, Phiyega, whose entire tenure as police chief has been controversial to say the least, is unlikely to survive the inquiry.The Farlam report is unflinching in its criticism of the conduct of the police at Marikana, and of that of North West police commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo, who ordered the dispersal of the strikers, and recently said she would resign.Farlam called for the actions of all officers on the scene to be investigated for criminal liability.A police leadership shake-up and prosecutions of officers, as well as of strikers involved in the violence that claimed 10 lives in the run-up to August 16, are likely to follow, but it is to be hoped that the enduring legacy of the Farlam report will be the changes to crowd control procedures that the judge recommends.Chief among these is that a panel of local and international experts in public order policing investigate best practice in the use of non-lethal measures to deal with violent crowds. In addition, the police should review the training of officers who use specialised crowd-control equipment such as water cannon and video equipment. Farlam said all radio communications should be recorded and officers trained in first aid should be present at all operations in which force was likely to be used.The police must ensure that the shameful events of Marikana are never repeated...