- A police officer is on his fifth day of cross-examination in the murder trial of former North West deputy police commissioner William Mpembe and five other officers.
- The officers are on trial for murder and attempted murder following events on 13 August 2012 in Marikana.
- Defence lawyer are comparing the sequence of events he had given in a witness statement, to evidence he gave in court.
The murder trial of former North West deputy police commissioner Major General William Mpembe and his five co-accused continued in the North West High Court in Mahikeng on Monday when defence advocate Kobus Burger continued with his cross-examination of Sergeant Benjamin Mahume.
Burger sought to understand the sequence of events on 13 August 2012 when police and mineworkers clashed at Lonmin K3 shaft in Marikana.
It was suspected that striking miners were looking for other miners who had reported for duty at the K3 shaft, when horrific scenes unfolded, News24 previously reported.
Five people died - mineworkers Semi Jokanisi, Phumzile Sokhanyile and Thembelakhe Mati, and police officers Hendrick Monene and Sello Lepaaku.
Mpembe, retired Colonel Salmon Vermaak, Constable Nkosana Mguye, as well as Warrant Officers Collin Mogale, Joseph Sekgwetla and Khazamola Makhubela, are in the dock in connection with allegations relating to the events which happened three days before the infamous Marikana massacre.
Mahume was a constable attached to Rustenburg Public Order Policing (POP) unit on that day and was ordered to go to the mine to support officers from other units who were on the scene.
Discrepancies
He was questioned about what defence lawyers believed were discrepancies between a statement he submitted to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate in February 2017 and evidence he had given in court.
Burger represents Vermaak, who was the North West police airwing commander on that day.
He asked the witness to recall what he remembered about a helicopter landing that took place when Lepaaku was injured and transported to a medical centre.
Mahume told the court:
The court heard that Rustenburg POP commander, Lieutenant Colonel Omphile Joseph Merafe, took Lepaaku away from the scene.
Although he did not see how Merafe arrived and where Lepaaku was, he said he only heard people shouting that the officer should be taken to hospital and that the vehicle had already been parked.
"I am putting it to you that logic defects that if there were a quicker way, like the chopper for instance, available on the ground at that stage, that would have been a better method to take the late Warrant Officer Lepaaku to a medical [facility]; by way of a chopper and not by means of the vehicle. Would you agree?" Burger asked.
"Yes, the chopper could have been used," Mahume replied.
C-shape formation
Mahume testified last week that he walked with Lepaaku when police escorted the striking miners in a "c-shape" formation from a railway line where they had gathered.
The workers were on their way to the "koppie" (hill) when Mpembe allegedly instructed police to fire tear gas at them, Mahume testified.
Mahume told the court that the striking miners were armed with pangas and knobkerries.
The court heard that two workers used a panga to "chop" Lepaaku.
The State's case is that police indiscriminately shot at the fleeing miners.
Mpembe faces four counts of murder and five of attempted murder.
The former provincial deputy police commissioner and Vermaak are also charged with defeating the ends of justice and giving false information under oath before the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana massacre between 2013 and 2014.
Mahume was testifying during his fifth day of cross-examination before Judge Tebogo Djaje.
The trial resumed on 10 May and is expected to run until Friday, 28 May.
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