Controversy surrounds the killings at a platinum mine near Rustenburg last weekend. Joshua Amupadhi reports
EVERY man was “a potential corpse” when violence spread last weekend near a Rustenburg platinum mine, resulting in the death of 32 men.
Mine worker Solly Kokone, who was enjoying a mug of beer when the fighting began, told the Mail & Guardian: “I’ve never seen a thing like this in my 36 years here. Although I am a Sotho I have friends from all the tribes. But, my friend, that day I got so scared, because every man was a potential corpse.”
The trouble began when the owner of a small shop in a squatter camp beat an alleged burglar to death.
Controversy is swirling around the sequence of events which followed with questions about the actions – or lack thereof – by police and the mine’s security staff.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has already claimed police were caught out in their approach. The killing was allowed to spread from the Freedom Park squatter camp to the hostel on the Wildebeestfontein South mine almost a day after the first two deaths which sparked the killing spree.
“Police should have realised there was a problem as people were arming themselves,” NUM regional co-ordinator Mahlakeng Mahlakeng said.
It was also no problem for the killers to chase their victims on to mine property. Two of the three entrances leading to the hostel have no security gates.
Staff told the M&G this week that security – heavy on most mines -was fairly relaxed, with workers walking on and off mine property. When the violence broke out, security staff ran.
Phokeng police were first called to the Freedom Park before dawn last Saturday following the deaths of Masasa Motinyane and spaza owner Mavunisa Nopheka.
Nopheka allegedly found Motinyane, from Lesotho, and six others breaking into his spaza. He caught Motinyane and bludgeoned him to death. Police say the alleged thief’s body was mutilated, but the genitals were not cut off as reported.
Motinyane’s friends regrouped, came back and killed Nopheka, a Xhosa from the former Transkei.
When police came in they received no co- operation from the residents, so they took the corpses and left, Rustenburg senior superintendent Lucas Breedt said.
Meanwhile, indiscriminate killings started taking place between Basotho and Batswana on one side, and Xhosa and Mpondo men on the other.
It was at this stage that Phokeng police realised they could not handle the situation and called in reinforcements from Rustenburg.
Breedt said police and South African National Defence Force patrols brought the situation in Freedom Park under control. They were unaware that some people had fled to the hostel and more killings were taking place there.
By 11pm, when police were called to the hostel, nine of the 17 bodies were found – some were burnt, Breedt said. The rest of the bodies were discovered later.
“At no stage did we handle any violence. Nobody reported to us that there was fighting taking place in the hostel, while we were concentrating on the squatter camp,” Breedt said.
NUM branch chair at the mine, Lemon Magalakwe, exonerated mine security, saying they were not armed and had to flee for their lives. He said the security staff had radioed police.
Mine owner, Impala Platinum, said in a statement this week that more than two- thirds of Freedom Park residents were its employees.
l Police said this week they had arrested three of the alleged spaza shop robbers and charged them with theft. A fourth man had been charged with arson.