The inquest into the Highgate Hotel massacre heard that police at the time did a shoddy job of investigating the deadly attack.
Testifying on Tuesday, retired police brigadier Clifford Marion, now working as a private investigator, told the inquest the forensic investigation by the police at the crime scene in May 1993 was “substandard”, “totally unacceptable” and a “disgrace if people don’t take their jobs seriously, especially in crime scenes like this”.
Five patrons were gunned down in the hotel in East London on May 1 1993. Seven others were badly wounded.
“Gathering evidence is one of the most important functions of the police service ... and if the investigative capacity is unable to generate proper investigation ... then in my view this matter was investigated [poorly],” Marion said.
He said the senior forensic investigator at the scene, police officer Franswa Stassen, left his subordinate to carry out the investigation.
“Even though he had been there for some seven-odd hours, he didn’t directly supervise the collection of fingerprints at the scene.
“Even though he conceded prints should have been lifted from the cartridges ... he didn’t instruct his subordinates to do so since in his view they were experienced.
“In my view the forensic investigation carried out ... was substandard. If he had ensured the cartridges were printed, leads may have been generated for the investigation.
“Prints were taken from patrons and staff present at the scene for purposes of elimination against the prints found at the scene.
“Since this was not done, the palm prints in exhibit Y [before the court] could possibly belong to patrons or perpetrators which we are likely never to know.”
Marion listed instances where the police did not follow up on leads, including the call made to The Citizen newspaper, when one Carl Zimbiri allegedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
It was reported the newspaper received a telephone call from “Carl Zimbiri” of the Internal High Command of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, claiming responsibility for the attack.
However, consequent investigations could not determine who was responsible for the attack, as the erstwhile Apla director of operations, Letlapa Mphahlele, denied knowledge of involvement in the attack.
Marion said had the leads been followed, this would have assisted the investigation.
A number of police officers dealing with the investigation did not submit statements and it was unclear why, as this was contrary to basic requirements of conducting investigations.
These statements would have completed the chain of evidence.
The inquest has also heard that the bullet cartridges picked up in the aftermath of the massacre were “stolen” from a post office more than two years later while being posted to Cape Town, according to evidence heard.
Marion said the disappearance of the crucial evidence was “absolutely abnormal”.
If the evidence had been hand delivered, instead of being posted, it would have been preserved.
“In my view it’s absolutely suspicious that of all the cases the Highgate evidence goes missing. Somebody knew that the evidence would be posted.”
The inquest continues.
Daily Dispatch
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