Gwede fingered in ‘assault’

CHARGE: MINISTER INSTRUCTED POLICE TO ‘DEAL’ WITH MINING BOSS Delegate at summit dragged out of Boksburg hotel by cops, breaking leg.

Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe is facing possible prosecution for common assault.

A delegate at a mining summit in July alleged he was assaulted by police on the minister’s instruction.

In a statement to police in Boksburg, Orapeleng Ben Setlhauno said that the minister instructed police to “deal” with him during the mining summit, held at Birchwood Hotel in July.

The 54-year-old President of the South African National Mining Council said after the instruction, police slapped and kicked him as they dragged him out of the summit, breaking his left leg, in full view of other delegates.

Setlhauno said his “crime” was objecting to the former Chamber of Mines of South Africa using its new name, Mineral Council South Africa, in the programme as the name was subject to legal challenge.

He said in his statement that the programme director on the day, Sello Helepi, ordered him to sit and when he refused, “… Mantashe went to the mike uninvited [by Helepi]. He order (sic) the police to deal with me”

Setlhauno, of Mafikeng in North West, said after this instruction, about eight police officers approached him and told him to leave. When he refused, the police officers attacked him.

“I was slapped at the back of my head, while others were pulling me out and one stomped on my leg. After I was thrown out of the room, I realised that my leg was injured,’ he told The Citizen.

Boksburg North police spokesperson Captain Pearl van Staad said the case had been elevated to the provincial detectives for investigation.

“The docket was sent to the deputy director of public prosecution for a decision on October 24 and has not returned yet. I can confirm that the suspect is Mr Gwede Mantashe,” she said.

Last month, human rights lawyer Richard Spoor was charged with assault following a verbal clash with Mantashe and Eastern Cape police commissioner General Andre Swart on the Wild Coast.

Spoor represents members of the Amadiba Crisis Committee that is opposed to a minerals sand mining project near Xolobeni village and had complained that communities opposed to mining were marginalised from Mantashe’s public meeting.

Mantashe’s spokesperson Ayanda Shezi asked for questions to be mailed but had not responded at the time of going to press.