/ 10 May 2013

Marikana suicide was third attempt

Marikana Suicide Was Third Attempt

The body was among the cluster of rocks that make up what is now known as Small Koppie.

Small Koppie was where more than a dozen striking mineworkers were killed by police during the Marikana massacre on August 16. Police had pursued them from the main koppie, a few hundred metres away.

Mabutyana survived the onslaught and was among the 270 arrested on the day of the killings.

The Mail & Guardian has learned from his colleagues that at the time of his death, Mabutyana, who had been subpoenaed to testify at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, was also in possession of a release form that allowed him to attend the commission.

However, the renewable, month-long release form had lapsed on March 22.

Mabutyana's colleagues said he had lost his job on March 7.

The details surrounding Mabutyana's discharge are significant in the context of post-strike working conditions, which workers say have worsened.

Termination document
Vuyisanani Mlobeli, a cousin who works at Lonmin, said that if Mabutyana had resigned the termination document should have had his signature, that of human resources, and a witness.

"We haven't been able to get a termination form from the company. I'm not sure if the proper channels were followed."

Mabutyana was believed to have been experiencing acute financial problems and had already attempted suicide twice before.

"In December, I left him here at the house [in Nkanini informal settlement outside Lonmin] while I went home on leave," said his brother, Thabani Mabutyana (39).

"I got a phone call during that period telling me that he had tried to kill himself and he was already in hospital. He first tried killing himself with an electric cord, but he failed.  He then ate Rattex [poison] and the neighbours found him rolling about in the yard."

He later confessed to being frustrated by debts owed to loan sharks.

Illegal practices
In the aftermath of the strike, the National Credit Regulator shut down 11 of the 17 cash-loan operators in Marikana for illegal practices.

Thabani said he had settled his brother's debts and recovered his identity and debit cards from loan sharks on more than one occasion.

Mabutyana lived in the Wonderkop Hostel's single quarters and had spent Worker's Day with his brother.

He spent more than two weeks in jail after the events of August 16 and was released in the first week of September.

While Mabutyana  may have survived the police shootings of August 16, the Lonmin strike's aftermath – fraught with trauma, financial difficulties and what some would argue is an increasingly hostile working environment – may have been too much for him to bear.