Police informer killed in Marikana unrest

A POLICE informant was killed at Marikana, in North West, amid the wage-related unrest in August last year, the Farlam Commission heard yesterday.

Major-General Charl Annandale said the victim was a security guard at Lonmin’s platinum mine.

The guard was one of 10 people killed in the week before August 16, when the police shot dead 34 striking miners.

Annandale, who headed the police’s special tactical operations team during the time of the Marikana unrest, told the commission that police had brought in negotiators prior to the shooting.

Five representatives for the protesters spoke to the negotiators and informed them they only wanted to speak to mine management.

Lonmin said it would hold talks with workers only once they returned to their jobs.

Annandale said the police held talks with the heads of the National Union of Mineworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and asked that they go and address their striking members.

After the meeting with police, the union leaders refused to travel together with the officers to the koppie where the workers had camped for several days.

The commission also heard about a body found close to the koppie on August 14.

Annandale said a police spokesman had informed him that journalists had told him about the body.

The hearings continue. – Sapa