The North West High Court has ordered investigators from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate to request footage from the SABC of what transpired in Marikana on the 13th of August in 2012, when five people were killed.
Lawyers representing former North West deputy police commissioner William Mpembe and his five co-accused, requested that video be used as evidence in court.
The clip was used on the SABC’s package about the ongoing Marikana court trial in Mahikeng. The former Public Order Police Unit’s video camera operator Abraham Masinya told the court that he could not recall part of the events of that day.
Masinya told the court that in his 29 years experience as a police officer, he never saw people attacking police, even when teargas and stun grenades were fired at them.
Masinya was cross-examined by the legal team of Salmon Vermaak, who was the Airwing police unit commander in 2012. Meanwhile, the presiding Judge Tebogo Djadje has granted the defense request that video footage played on SABC TV News on Tuesday be requested from the state broadcaster, and be used as evidence.
The trial continues on Thursday.
