Killings bedevil Lonmin ‘at the worst time’

LONMIN, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, yesterday pro-actively raised concerns about the increasing assassinations of mineworkers that are rocking the platinum belt after an employee was shot dead on Tuesday.

“The company is aware of at least six deaths and three injuries in various shootings across the region in the past three months, including three at Lonmin,” it said.

Lonmin said yesterday that Tholakele Dlunga, a rock drill operator, had been gunned down at his home in the Wonderkop mine village by an unknown assailant.

Dlunga was member of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and chairperson of Amcu’s health and safety committee at the Rowland shaft.

His murder comes just weeks after Lonmin employee Mvelisi Biyela was killed execution-style in front of his six-year-old daughter and wife outside his home in Wonderkop.

Biyela was an Amcu member who served as a health and safety officer at Lonmin.

Zingisa Mzendana, 30, Amcu’s 4 Shaft branch secretary and Lonmin’s engineering assistant, was also gunned down in August.

Amcu was not available for comment yesterday and is scheduled to address the media on the killings in a press conference in Johannesburg today.

The Star reported earlier this month that the bloodshed was said to be between the AmaBomvana and AmaMpondo tribes from the former Transkei in the Eastern Cape.

They were allegedly fighting over leadership preferences in Amcu’s branch at Wonderkop in the North West, which was the union’s stronghold.

The Star reported that Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa was accused of siding with the AmaBomvana faction and giving them preferential treatment to run the branch.

The union has previously denied these allegations.

Yesterday, Frans Cronjé, chief executive of the SA Institute of Race Relations, said the violence was in part a function of an internal power struggle at Amcu and, to a lesser extent, inter-union rivalry.

“The worst-case scenario is that intra- and inter-union rivalry combine to create a similar environment of fear and intimidation that laid the groundwork for the Marikana shooting some years ago.

“Even if the climate does not deteriorate to such an extent, any further labour instability in the mining industry comes at the worst possible time for the economy,” he said.

Amcu is the biggest union at Lonmin and enjoys sole organisational rights after the company gave notice that the recognition of minority unions by the National Union of Mineworkers, trade union Solidarity and the United Association of SA would be abolished.

Lonmin, which employs 33 000 people, said it was monitoring the situation and keeping key stakeholders abreast of what was happening.

Lonmin was the scene of the Marikana massacre on August 16, 2012, in which 34 mineworkers died.

In August, Lonmin announced a plan to review its operations, including the cutting of R500 million in overheads by the year ended September 2018.