Marikana commission, observers visit hostels, site of shootings

THE Marikana commission of inquiry visited the Nkaneng informal settlement yesterday, near the hill where the striking Lonmin miners were killed.

The three-member commission, headed by retired judge Ian Farlam, advocates, observers and journalists walked north through the area. A resident showed the commission where the police had been standing just before the raid. The woman told the commission she saw about four police vehicles. “I was scared,” she said through a translator.

Some of the mineworkers, who had gathered on the hill near the settlement prior to the shooting, were standing at the outskirts of Nkaneng when police arrived.

The woman said the men had their traditional weapons down, but police still fired. Judge Farlam, asked the woman not to give evidence, but to point out where things happened.

Curious Nkaneng residents joined the group. The commission went to look at the site where a councillor was shot. He died in hospital. Judge Farlam was shown bullet holes in some of the shacks. The commission also toured blocks of hostels inhabited by mineworkers.

Lonmin’s Natasha Viljoen told Judge Farlam and his team that the structures were “old-style”.

“These buildings here are the old-style hostels. The occupants of the buildings are in, but we will ask them nicely to peep in,” she told the commission. “We are currently converting and we will take you to see the final products (new-style hostels). The judge inspected the single-sex rooms and asked to be shown the ablution facilities. The judge entered and inspected the facility, which several men were busy cleaning.

Judge Farlam took a dirty and damaged toilet-roll dispenser and remarked, laughing: “This thing looks like it dispensed toilet paper ages ago.”

Ms Viljoen led Judge Farlam and his team to a charred patch of ground under a tree, near the Andrew Saffy Memorial Hospital. “Two of our employees and two vehicles were burnt here, at this tree. These incidents happened on August 12,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) called on the commission to uncover the truth.

“We want to know what happened,” Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said on the sidelines of the inspection.

Activists who held a protest at Nkaneng have called for counselling for the Lonmin miners who saw co-workers being shot dead. Sapa

Additional reporting by Jonisayi Maromo and Malaole Montsho