The ghost of Five Madoda has NUM in Rustenburg shivering

FOR THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the random violence whose latest victim was 44-year-old Nobongile Nora Madolo on Monday is sign of the reincarnation of its nemesis, the Five Madoda.

Madolo, whose twin sons were also killed under mysterious circumstances a few months earlier in Wonderkop, was entering her gate after buying a live chicken at the nearby market at the Wonderkop taxi rank, when bullets slammed into her.

With over 20 people killed in the past year, 14 claimed by the NUM as its members, the union believes the ghost of a renegade group, the Five Madoda, never really left but its tactics were swallowed whole by its arch rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

According to Mail & Guardian archives, the Five Madoda was a fearsome interim committee of workers which in 1997 caused mayhem at Impala Platinum (Implats) in Rustenburg when they orchestrated the demise of the NUM at the mine during a sixweek strike through the use of sheer violence that left dozens of people dead and scores hideously mutilated.

A few months after that violent strike, Amcu, which aligned with the splinter group, proudly announced that it had practically eroded the NUM’s turf, netting, it claimed, a cool three quarters of the 20 000-strong unionised workforce at Implats.

A complaint was launched with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) after the union accused Implats of dragging its feet over the verification process. Closer to the truth, though, is that Amcu had jumped the gun, as several of those who joined the union were sub-contracted workers whom the union could not represent at Implats, and others still belonged to the NUM.

At that point, however, the NUM’s eradication on the ground was already complete. Confirmation was only a formality. Amcu’s subsequent about-turn, which saw it withdraw its CCMA complaint, apparently to lubricate the normalisation of the situation across the mining industry after Marikana, raised other questions about its motives.

According to NUM, the Five Madoda, or at least the philo-

According to NUM, the Five Madoda has been nurtured under the wings of Amcu and political parties.

sophy, has been nurtured under the wing of Amcu and some political parties looking to disenfranchise the ANC, hence the ongoing violence is meant to drive membership away from NUM and consequently the ruling party.

“It is all about politics and not workers’ rights. Some parties fighting the ANC intend using the workers as a leverage to press for the alienation of the ANC,” said a NUM shop steward who admitted to having joined the political party as a soft prerequisite of union affiliation.

Depending on who you speak with at Marikana, the reasons for the isolated murders stem from pure criminal elements, livestock disputes, tribal conflicts, taxi wars and lovers’ quarrels gone awry.

“Wonderkop is a violent place, its just like Soweto in Gauteng or Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal. Its that kind of township where you see that you are not safe. Even I myself if I go there and stay late, I know I will be in trouble,” said an Amcu shop steward, who similarly declined to be named, in fear of reprisals.

But for NUM, the killings of its members are all laid at the door of Amcu, with some macabre details.

“Those two security guys killed before the massacre were mutilated for muti, their lips were cut off and used in a ritual cleansing by Amcu members,” the NUM shop steward said straight faced.

The talk of muti has certainly done the rounds, including that a majority of the miners killed at the koppie a year ago had believed themselves to be invincible after undergoing some rituals with muti allegedly provided by sangoma Alton Joja. The healer later died under a hail of bullets at his Bizana homestead in the Eastern Cape on March 24, shortly before he was to appear as a witness before the Farlam Commission.

According to NUM, the violence has pitted one colleague against another while Amcu says workers toiling shoulder to shoulder underground have no use for labour or political affiliation as their lives depend on each other.

“One of our female shop stewards, who was also a supervisor, came to us and requested to be allowed to join Amcu because of threats and gross insubordination by her underlings. We had to allow her to change because her job and life were threatened,” the NUM shop steward said.

Thabo Maseme, a miner in his early 30s who lives in the settlement next to the infamous koppie, told us that he too had changed allegiance to Amcu for survival. He said while he was never explicitly threatened, when the sentiment changed against NUM, he could not go against it for fear of his life.

“When you meet a group of men walking together, you are scared of what they might do to you but then there is comfort in that most people are now with Amcu and therefore are not likely to attack you if they know you too are Amcu.”

But the NUM shop steward was confident that the union would regroup and reclaim its membership, particularly if the government plays its part, as it should under the newly signed mining pact.

“If the government provides army personnel and police to patrol constantly, the violence and intimidation will end and we can recruit freely,” he said, adding that NUM’s ace in the hole was its superior organisational skills and training facilities.

“Even now the company sometimes requests us to represent Amcu members when they have to appear before a disciplinary committee, we are better trained than Amcu shop stewards and this enables us to make workers understand how much they need our services,” he said.