No closure for family of cop killed before massacre

LIZZY Maubane will never forget how her police officer brother called on August 13, 2012 to tell her he was being deployed to Marikana. She would never speak to him again.

Striking mineworkers would attack Warrant Officer Tsietsi Monene and a colleague at Lonmin’s platinum mine, killing both.

Yet even now, with the release of the Farlam Commission’s report into the events surrounding the Marikana massacre this week, Maubane and her family still do not have the answers they so desperately need to be able to heal.

“We are not satisfied as a family at all with this report,” she said. “We didn’t hear what transpired on that day. The whys, the hows and who killed my brother? When will these perpetrators be arrested?”

She plans to consult with her legal team on Monday. “We will go through the report and maybe we can find something that will give us closure. It’s just pain and sorrow we are going through now.

“With this Marikana thing, we can’t get on with our lives. The police are also human beings and these protesters must be taught how to work with the police. My brother was shot three times and hacked. What did he do wrong that they thought he deserved to die such a brutal death?”

Monene was among the 10 people, including non-striking mineworkers and security guards, who were killed in the violence that preceded the police killing of 34 striking mineworkers on August 16, 2012.

“It’s as if only 34 people were killed,” Monene complains. “We are the minority. Our voices are not heard. Our 10 people were brutally killed. When I went to the mortuary to identify my brother, he was so disfigured, I couldn’t believe it was him lying there.”

A day before Monene was killed, striking mineworkers hacked and bur nt Hassan Fundi, a Lonmin security supervisor, to death along with his colleague Frans Mabelane.

For his widow, Aisha Fundi, the release of the commission’s report has brought some respite.

“From what I heard from the president, I feel a sense of relief. Though it opens up old wounds, the report makes it clear that strikers are responsible for my husband’s murder. They are pleading innocence on murder, but they are not (innocent).

“The president brought a sense of hope about those cases that happened from August 11 to August 15, 2012, which must be referred to the prosecuting authorities. With the help of God, I imagine there will be justice, though I don’t know how long it will take. But I have faith.”

She could not eat dinner on Thursday night. “It was disturbing to be reminded of the events of Marikana.”

This year, Lonmin employed Fundi in its human resources department as part of its job replacement programme but she admits she did not want to go to work yesterday.

“Working in this environment, you just have to pretend nothing happened, to heal and move forward.

“I had the feeling everyone was watching me, but some people were motivating me to be strong, giving me hugs and comforting me. It’s not easy.

“We have to … go on with our lives. Only God knows. This chapter will pass. I want to close it and move forward with my life.”