Marikana commission hears of muti protection claim
MUTI protected people against “creatures like the tokoloshe”, a union official told the Farlam commission in Rustenburg yesterday.
Ishmael Semenya, for the police, was questioning National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) member and Lonmin employee Saziso Gegeleza on his knowledge of the use of muti (herbal medicine) before fights.
“I don’t have the experience,” he said, and explained the only muti he was aware of was used to attract women.
Postmortem examinations of the people killed at Marikana last year had revealed fresh incisions on their bodies, Semenya said, and he asked why these were made.
“Sometimes, to protect people against creatures like the tokoloshe [an evil spirit],” Gegeleza said.
Semenya put it to him if this muti worked against the tokoloshe, it would work even better against humans.
“I’m not sure if that’s the position. What I know is it does have an effect on the tokoloshe,” Gegeleza replied.
Semenya also asked him to explain why he thought a large police contingent at Marikana had not deterred striking workers.
“I was far away from Marikana at the time the police were there,” Gegeleza said.
The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in August 2012.
On August 16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 were wounded when police opened fire while trying to disperse a group gathered near the mine.
In the preceding week, 10 people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed.
Earlier the commission heard the working conditions under which rock drillers operated impaired their dignity.
The statement was put to Gegeleza by lawyer Dali Mpofu, representing those injured and arrested during violent strikes at Lonmin’s Marikana mine last year.
Gegeleza agreed rock drillers, generally, were underpaid and worked under difficult conditions. — Sapa