Six people died on the East Rand after they were thrown from a moving train by suspected security guards targeting scab labour during a protracted strike, police said on Tuesday.
Police were alerted late on Monday that ”people were being thrown off the train” between two stations at Benoni, about 20km east of Johannesburg, spokesperson Eugene Opperman said.
”Police did a search along the railway lines and found five bodies. A sixth person was found alive but died on the way to hospital,” he told Agence France-Presse.
All the dead suffered multiple injuries.
Police were questioning a witness and believed the attackers were members of a security guard union on strike for higher wages.
”We are investigating at the moment but we believe the attacks may be linked to the ongoing strike,” Senior Superintendent Opperman said.
”It is believed that the attackers may have been looking for people who were not taking part in the strike,” he said.
Thousands of members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) launched a second wave of strikes earlier this month after the Labour Court overturned an earlier ruling
declaring the strike illegal.
Fourteen other unions have signed an agreement for an 8,3% pay rise but Satawu is demanding 11%.
Strikers have marched in major cities and there have been clashes with police.
Two weeks ago, South African rail transport utility Metrorail obtained a court interdict against the union warning them to refrain from acts of violence or vandalism to property.
The company took the step after another commuter was killed when he was stripped naked and thrown from a train. Several other commuters were also beaten up and rail coaches were damaged. — Sapa-AFP