An inquiry into mine violence has lost momentum with the absence of Uwusa, report Bronwen Jones and Stuart Hess
IN the week when at least 24 mineworkers were slain, fears are mounting that a major judicial inquiry into mine violence will be torpedoed by the absence of the United Workers Union of South Africa (Uwusa) from the proceedings.
The commission of inquiry is concentrating on the spate of killings at Goldfields’s mines in recent months which has left 48 workers dead. The battle, mainly between Uwusa and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), has stripped almost R70-million from Goldfields’s profits.
The Inkatha-aligned Uwusa claims it cannot afford to pay lawyers to represent it at the commission after the Legal Aid Board turned down a request for assistance. Judge John Myburgh, who is chairing the inquiry, is understood to be urging the board to reconsider.
Uwusa official Duke Senakgono said the union feared the commission would not be impartial as it had been appointed by the African National Congress.
Despite the focus on Goldfields, the eruption of violence near the Randgold-owned Buffelsfontein mine this week served as a reminder that the commission’s findings could be crucial for the industry.
Even without Uwusa, the atmosphere is adversarial. On the one side are lawyers representing NUM. They argue that Uwusa’s lack of support for NUM’s wage demand in mid-July and the gun shot allegedly fired at marchers from Uwusa members at East Driefontein mine triggered the violence.
On the other side are police representatives who have argued that the NUM strike in July was illegal. Police investigator Petrus Peche told the commission he believed “the initial violence may have been instigated by the NUM to achieve goals other than the goals stated for their mass action”. He added that hired external operatives, who had killed members from both unions, could have fanned the violence.
NUM’s statement to the commission suggests that the mines’ security operatives colluded with the aggressors by failing to take away their weapons at the hostel’s entrance.
Although weapon searches could have been carried out daily, the police argue they had insufficient manpower. They have arrested remarkably few people considering the number of incidents. The 11 arrests which followed the murder of Bheki Ndlovu fell flat – all the cases were withdrawn owing to a legal technicality which has since been rectified.
Perhaps the most illuminating testimony has been from labour expert Dr Kent McNamarra who has conducted in-depth studies into mine violence. McNamarra’s apolitical explanation was that a lethal cocktail of xenophobia, fear, tension stemming from overcrowding, and sexual frustration was behind much of the violence which has hit the mines.
The average number of people in each room at the hostels is 17 at East Driefontein, 16 at Leeudorn and 12 at Northam.
Uwusa has opposed calls by NUM to scrap the practice of housing workers according to ethnic groups. “Hostel integration … is just a ploy by NUM to intimidate workers to join their organisation,” said Uwusa representative Duke Senakgomo.
NUM’s Frans Baleni said “this policy of divide-and-rule caused a lot of animosity among workers”.
This week, in yet another reminder for Judge Myburgh of the importance of his task, several hundred unemployed Zulu workers hovered on the outskirts of Goldfields’ Leeudorn mine at Bekkersdal, 80km west of Johannesburg.
Anina van der Westhuizen, a Uwusa lawyer who claims ethnic cleansing by NUM is behind all the mine violence (including Stilfontein), said the workers had tried to return to work but had been directed to “mixed rooms” with a ratio of one Zulu to eight Xhosas. “They decided it was not safe and so they left the mine,” Van der Westhuizen said.
Judge Myburgh is to make his recommendations on October 7.