Slain activist ‘refused bribe’

A brazen attempt to “buy off” community leaders blocking a huge coal-mine expansion in KwaZulu-Natal has raised new questions about the assassination of KwaZulu-Natal anti-mining campaigner Fikile Ntshangase.

Ntshangase, 63, was shot dead last month after refusing an alleged R350,000 bribe. She had threatened to tell who offered her the bribe and of a meeting between mine management and community leaders at which payoffs were discussed.

Many in the area of the Somkhele coal mine who supported Ntshangase now fear for their lives.

Documents seen by the Sunday Times say two men, Phillip Zwane and Nkosi Mlambo, appear to have tried to get money for persuading the community in the Mkhuze area to withdraw court cases lodged against Tendele Coal Mining.

Two affidavits link Zwane and Mlambo to the bribe claims. One says the men claimed to be acting for Tendele.

Minutes of a Zoom meeting on April 19 say Tendele CEO Jan du Preez and community development manager Nathi Kunene met Zwane and Mlambo, who were members of anti-mining lobby Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation.

Ntshangase was a member of the group, which is a party to court cases over a planned 220ha expansion of the mine. One case went to the Supreme Court of Appeal this week. Another is scheduled for the high court in Pretoria next year.

The group’s legal representative said this week that the April meeting took place without the go-ahead from the organisation, and that neither Zwane nor Mlambo had the authority to negotiate.

None of the four parties at the meeting dispute the veracity of the minutes.

The minutes say Mlambo said that for the group to postpone the court case, with the chance of withdrawing it, two things needed to take place:

Seven members of the group should each be given a “payment” of R350,000.

Legal costs would be R1.2m.

Last week, Du Preez denied knowing of any money offered or requested or linked to Ntshangase. But this week he and Kunene said Zwane and Mlambo approached Tendele, saying the group would postpone the case if R350,000 was arranged.

They said Zwane and Mlambo wanted the cash andwould persuade the group to quit the court actions.

“This request for compensation was refused by Tendele.

“Compensation was never offered to any community members to withdraw from the court case,” the mine said.

Du Preez and Kunene said it was indicated that the money was needed to manage future projects and business opportunities on behalf of the group.

“Nothing was ever paid,” they said.

The allegations of the bribes came after Ntshangase's murder on October 22.

“She was very outspoken,” said her daughter Lungelo Xakaza. “That’s just who she was.”

Aweek before her death, Ntshangase said in a meeting of the group that she had been offered money — in the region of R350,000 — to sign a memorandum of understanding between the group and Tendele.

She said she would depose an affidavit, saying who offered the money, and what was required in return.

She was killed before she could do so, but had spoken to her legal representative and her family about the bribe.

The memorandum says that the court cases against Tendele “would be withdrawn”. There is no mention of compensation in the document.

In the affidavit, given to the Sunday Times this week, a community member said Zwane had visited him around the time of the April meeting and offered him what was understood to be a R300,000 bribe to withdraw support for the group’s litigation against Tendele.

The communitymember said they would also be offered work with the mine, and would be made “rich”. The person’s identity is not being published for fear of reprisal.

The document states that Du Preez was ready to give the group an “offer” on condition of signing the memorandum.

Several other group members were approached, the affidavit states.

Asked if he was aware that his name had allegedly been used, Du Preez responded: “Anyone who used my name in this regard had no authority to do so. We can confirm that no monies were offered by the mine to any [group] members to withdraw the court cases. We have no knowledge of anyone else offering money to have the court caseswithdrawn or removed.”

Zwane this week denied he had visited any community members with the intention of offering them money, and said he had no knowledge of any money being offered to committee members.

“There was no money promised to us ... Mr Jan [du Preez] said to me he wanted to sit down with [the group] and the mine to speak about the way forward.

“But I don’t know about the R350,000. If you want to know about this money, you must call the mine but from my side I don’t know anything about that,” he said.

Mlambo confirmed knowledge of the R350,000 figure, but said that it was not for each committee member but for projects that would have to be managed for the community.

“There are a lot of development infrastructure and business opportunities we presented to Tendele Coal Mine.”

However, this was a proposal made after discussions with a concerned group of people who later joined the Mfolozi group.

He denied having approached any community member, promising money should they agree to sign the memorandum.

“There was no memorandum by the time we presented our approach.

“The meeting we had with Tendele did not develop further as Tendele Coal Mine did not agree to the amount that was tabled for projects,” he said.

Zwane, Mlambo and other members of the group have been suspended from the organisation for acting outside of their scope and without the mandate of the organisation.

Environmental justice lawyer Kirsten Youens, representing the group in the appeal court case, said the attacks on anti-mining campaigners, and on Ntshangase, were “absolutely” linked to their opposition to the mine expansion.

Asked whether Ntshangase’s rejection of the bribe was specifically linked to her murder, Youens said: “She refused to sign the [memorandum], and she publicly stated she was going to attest to an affidavit to talk about this bribe and to talk about the memorandum of understanding that the people had signed ... one week later she was killed in a hit. It cannot be [coincidental].”

A community member said: “We as a community have been very fearful since hearing of the death of mam’ Fikile.”

Police did not respond to questions for an update of investigations into Ntshangase’s murder.