Statement on behalf of the deceased miners' families represented before the Marikana Commission of Inquiry 

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) Law Clinic has been instructed to release the following statement on behalf of the families of the striking miners killed by the Police on 16 August 2013:

The families of those killed during the Marikana massacre do not accept National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega's "condolences", offered yesterday before the Marikana Commission of Inquiry. What we want, and will continue to demand, is a full-throated apology from Commissioner Phiyega and an acknowledgement of responsibility for having killed our family members. We also demand an undertaking that those police officers found to have participated in the killing of our family members will be disciplined, and, where appropriate, prosecuted. 

A video presented at the Marikana Commission yesterday showed Commissioner Phiyega congratulating her police officers on the Marikana killings. 

We are outraged and humiliated that Phiyega's "condolences" were offered immediately after she was shown on tape thanking her officers for killing our loved-ones. On the video, Phiyega also encouraged the officers to applaud themselves. That she would seek to glorify the killings in this way is beyond all comprehension.

We accordingly reject Phiyega's "condolences" offered yesterday. She clearly thinks the police did nothing wrong, and has communicated this to the SAPS as a whole. Such a view has no place in a society which values life, and mourns its loss. 

Statement issued by Teboho Mosikili, director of litigation at SERI, March 15 2013

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