Yesterday the inquiry's first witness, police captain Monwabisi Ntlati, gave evidence.

The Marikana inquiry concluded that the decision to disperse and disarm the miners was taken at a meeting of the police's national management team.

Evidence leader Ismail Jamie yesterday sought to establish when the decision was made.

In a sworn statement, Ntlati, who commanded the tactical response team in August 2012, said Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan Scott had told him and other commanders at a briefing at the police joint operation centre set up at the Lonmin mine that the order was from the national management, which he understood to be national and divisional commissioners.

Jamie put it to Ntlati that Scott testified at the Marikana inquiry that he had no recollection of a meeting of the police's national management forum at which the decision to disperse the miners was taken.

"I do not know what [Scott] told the [Marikana] commission but I can only testify on what I heard him say - that the order came from national management," Ntlati said.

The inquiry's terms of reference include establishing whether those who took the decision to implement the "tactical option" ought to have foreseen the tragic and catastrophic consequences.

It will also try to establish whether Phiyega, acting with other police leaders, or alone, misled the Marikana inquiry by concealing that top police management had made the decision to implement a "tactical option" the day before the shooting.

William Mokhari, for Phiyega, is expected to cross-examine Ntlati when the hearing resumes today.