MOGWASE – The trial of former North West deputy police commissioner Major General Willam Mpembe and three others, who are in the dock in connection with the death of 30 mine workers in Marikana, continues at the North West High Court in Mogwase on Tuesday.
The mineworkers were killed several years ago at a Marikana koppie.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) investigator Lepono Motaung testified on Monday that 30 people were confirmed dead at scene 1 and scene 2 after they were shot by the police on 16 August 2012, the other four died in hospital.
The accused Mpembe, provincial head of detectives Brigadier Gideon van Zyl, Colonel Dingaan Madoda and Captain Oupa Pule are facing charges of contravention of the Commissions Act, contravention of the Independent Police Directorate Act and defeating the ends of justice.
They were arrested after an investigation by the Ipid, found that one mine worker, Modisaotsile van Wyk Sagalala died in police custody and not in hospital or at the scene, where the police shot at mine workers.
The state charges that the accused concealed circumstance of Sagalala's death.
Motaung, who was the principal investigator at Ipid in 2012, told the court he was notified of the shooting over the phone by Colonel Dingaan Madoda. He said he was at the Ipid offices in Rustenburg when the colonel told him people had been shot at by police in Marikana.
On arrival in Marikana, Motaung said he called Colonel Madoda.
"When I called Colonel Madoda he said he will arrive shortly and he did. He then led me to the where the shooting took place at the Koppie. He was in the company of another colleague unknown to me," said the Ipid investigator.