The Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training (2016) and the feasibility of free higher education; the Marikana Commission of Inquiry into the tragic instances at Marikana (2012); and the Commission into allegations of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha (2012): with just a glance at the names of these commissions, it is clear that the official language espoused champions a particular way of thinking, and speaking of the subject under inquiry. Through an analysis of the official discourse of commissions of inquiry into police violence, I examine how official commissions are poised to address issues of structural violence. I discern how the high instance of official commissions is reflective of a larger dynamic of state-society relations in the context of South Africa's neoliberal economic framework and whether these commissions do meet the 'fact-finding' objectives they set out to do, or whether they are tools used to legitimate the state.