It is still not clear whether lawyers at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry will get interim funding from an unnamed foundation, the commission heard on Wednesday.

The commission’s chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, said he “may have been too optimistic in thinking they would have received a decision by now”.

“I understand we will have an answer, in one way or the other, on whether we will have funding, by Tuesday,” he said, in adjourning the commission until 9.30am on Tuesday.

Dali Mpofu, representing the mineworkers wounded and arrested at Marikana, wanted the funding for his legal team.

Mpofu intended filing papers with the Constitutional Court for a ruling on whether the State should fund their work at the commission. He made a similar request in the High Court in Pretoria earlier this month, but it was dismissed.

He has since asked that the commission be postponed until August 19, pending the outcome of the court proceedings. Farlam has
yet to decide on Mpofu’s request.

The commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of 44 people during strike-related unrest in Marikana last year.

Police shot dead 34 striking mineworkers on August 16. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the
preceding week.
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