Death and fear still stalk platinum belt
The eyes of SA and the world have turned away from the platinum belt, returning there only when the Marikana massacre is commemorated every August. Yet mine workers there are being continually snuffed out.
Union leaders, fathers, sons and brothers are being gunned down by unknown assailants for reasons that may never surface. Law enforcement authorities have not paid special attention to the region to solve the crimes, despite several pleas by civil society and political formations.
In the past two weeks, the bodies of four regional leaders of the Association of Construction and Mineworkers Union (Amcu) were found riddled with bullets at the Lonmin and Impala mines.
In the most recent attack, Lonmin health and safety officer Mvelisi Biyela was gunned down outside his home in front of his wife and sixyear-old daughter.
People are dying and no one seems to care, say Amcu and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) leaders.
Amcu unseated NUM as the majority union in the platinum belt just before the 2012 unprotected strike, which secured workers a R12,500 minimum wage but cost the lives of 44 people who were shot down by police officers.
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa says nothing can be “ruled out” when examining the causes of the latest deaths. He believes dark forces are trying to destabilise his union by threatening the lives of those associated with it.
NUM president Piet Matosa distances his union from the loss of lives on the platinum belt and asks why only Amcu members are being targeted.
When violence surfaces in the mining industry, the assumption is to link it to rivalry between NUM and Amcu, but Matosa says it is obvious that it emanates from “intra-union” violence. Being distracted by “finger-pointing” is a hopeless exercise, he adds.
However Mathunjwa says that after Biyela’s murder, it became clear “a war” had been declared on Amcu, yet there was no response from the state or the mining industry.
“We wonder whether a new campaign is being unleashed by the state and its allies against our militant and independent union,” he says.
“We wonder if this is a continuation of the dirty tricks campaign led by President Jacob Zuma and the National Intelligence Agency, which sponsored the building of an opposition union aimed at defeating Amcu,” he says. He is referring to the Workers Association Union, which was launched in 2014, allegedly on Zuma’s instruction, in an effort to destabilise Amcu after it usurped NUM in the region.
Institute for Security Studies crime hub manager Lizette Lancaster characterises the mine killings as a manifestation of a similar conflict in KwaZuluNatal, where politicians are being killed in factional battles.
“Whether it is political killings or taxi violence, what is clear is that there are factions at play and they seem to resort to violence to take over leadership positions,” she says.
North West premier Supra Mahumapelo is pleading for calm in the area.
“We can’t continue to kill each other in the manner that this is happening. We need to have a total regard for human life and we must never cease to talk to each other, never mind how difficult the situation is,” he says.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula’s spokesman, Vuyo Mhaga, says the minister is forwarding the matter to the North West police commissioner “to find out what has been done”.
Matosa says all government departments have to “wake up” and start analysing the killings with the aim of setting up a special forum that would deal with the issues “head-on”.
The unions warn that if this is not done, the blood of workers will continue to spill on the platinum belt, while everyone folds their arms.