SABC footage used to show events leading to Marikana massacre

SABC news video footage was used in court to depict visuals of some of the events that saw two police officers and three miners losing their lives in Marikana.

The video was shown after one taken by retired police video operator Warrant Officer Rapheso Masinya on 13 August 2012, prior to the Marikana massacre.

In the horrific events that happened at Lonmin K3 shaft in Marikana, Masinya is seen in civilian clothes carrying a camera.

It took him a few seconds to accept the person in the video was him.

Masinya told the North West High Court in Mahikeng on Thursday the person filmed by the SABC could be him because they were wearing similar clothes to those he wore at the time.

He also accepted the SABC footage was clearer than his.

In the footage, a photographer is seen capturing the body of Warrant Officer Hendrik Monene and later, visuals of when the injured Warrant Officer Solomon Baloyi was airlifted by a police helicopter to hospital.

Denied

Masinya earlier denied he saw a helicopter airlifting Baloyi, saying he only saw the chopper flying away.

He confirmed he recorded Monene’s body lying next to his police cap covered in blood.

The cap was facing towards his face.

Later in Masinya’s video, Monene’s bloodied cap is facing his left arm and not his head as was shown earlier.

In a third clip, an R5 magazine lies on top of Monene’s cap.

When asked about seeing a police helicopter and gunshots being fired, Masinya claimed he could not remember.

Chopper

However, the sound of the chopper and gunshots are clearly heard in the video he took.

“I’m not denying I can’t remember hearing the noise and gunshots. I don’t remember hearing the helicopter flying. I am now hearing gunshots and a helicopter hovering, but I didn’t count how many shots were fired.”

Masinya denied seeing police officers Nkosana Mguye, Collin Mogale, Joseph Sekgwetla and Khazamola Makhubela at the scene.

Mguye, Mogale, Sekgwetla and Makhubela, together with Colonel Salmon Vermaak and former North West deputy police commissioner William Mpembe, have all pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder.

Meanwhile, Mpembe and Vermaak are each facing a charge of defeating the ends of justice and another of giving false information under oath before the Farlam commission of inquiry into the Marikana massacre between 2013 and 2014.

The trial continues on 19 October.

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