Mawethu Steven died wearing an Amcu T-shirt. But his involvement in the North West platinum belt predated the union's fame and the Marikana massacre that followed: he was embedded in the very fabric of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and its efforts to gain traction among miners in the platinum belt.
The former National Union of Mineworkers's branch chairperson was dismissed from the Lonmin mine shortly after his dismissal from that union in 2011. A wave of anger followed him, first to the dusty streets of Marikana in a strike against the NUM.
He was alive, then. Now he is dead.
His death over the weekend was the latest in a spate of killings that have rocked the platinum sector since the Marikana killings on August 16 2012.
Like Steven, many of those killed have been connected to either the NUM or Amcu, and many were due to give evidence at the Farlam commission of inquiry.
More killings
Steven was gunned down at Billy’s Tavern near Anglo Platinum’s Khomani shaft two in the North West on Saturday afternoon. He was watching soccer. North West police spokesperson Brigadier Thulani Ngubane could not be reached for further comment on Monday, but on Sunday said the four suspects remained at large.
That same day, two men, apparently NUM shop stewards, were also shot and killed. It remains unclear if the two killings were related.
A regional organiser for Amcu, Steven's testimony at the Farlam commission of inquiry into the Marikana killings would have been critical. He knew the story of the rivalry between the two unions better than anyone.
His knowledge of the angst along the platinum belt goes to the core of the issues currently being aired before the commission: inhumane working conditions underpinned by unresponsive and corrupt union leaders, and a deep mistrust of the police that predates democracy.
Crispen Chinguno, a PhD candidate at the Society, Work and Development Institute at Wits University, knew Steven before Marikana – before Rustenburg was synonymous with the killing of 34 miners at the hands of the police.
Connected to the violence
To understand Steven’s death, Chinguno said on Monday, it was necessary to go back to before Amcu’s arrival on the scene. A history of killings precedes the union-on-union dichotomy, he said. And Steven was connected to the violence from the onset.
Before Amcu, the killings were often the result of intra-union factionalism, Chinguno said, which means the trend is deeper than just union-on-union violence.
But Steven’s killing is unique in that he was on the verge of giving evidence at the commission. Like so many other killings in the months after Marikana, the question whether Steven’s murderers counted this as motive remains unknown.
According to Chinguno, Steven is credited with Amcu’s breakthrough in Rustenburg.
When the NUM disbanded the Karee branch’s leadership in 2011, union leaders said Steven, the chairperson at the time, was corrupt. But Chinguno said some of the workers he spoke to said Steven was being punished for advancing the workers’ cause. And so they rebelled against the NUM in a strike that saw thousands threatened with dismissal. Many of those workers returned to the mine shafts once the internal NUM spat was resolved.
But that was the end of Steven's time with the NUM. He went on to organise Amcu membership at Impala Platinum, giving the rival union its first real foothold in the platinum mines.
'Calmness and respect'
On Monday, Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said Steven would be remembered for his “calmness and respect”.
“He became a thorn to those who are opposed to workers’ progress. Numerous threats were directed at him but he was never shaken,” Mathunjwa said. The union called for an end to the violence.
“Freedom of association was what we fought for in the new democratic South Africa. People should not be killed for exercising their right to associate or disassociate,” he said.
After the killings, North West Premier Thandi Modise said workers should “resist the temptation to be drawn towards violence”.
But according to Chinguno, the violence in Rustenburg is endemic and is exacerbated by the lack of trust workers have in formal structures, such as the police.
Much of the same
“We need to remember that close to half of the miners along the platinum belt live in informal settlements,” he said. For many, this is just as it was before 1994, and along with this sameness comes a mistrust of the police, Chinguno said.
This is well illustrated by further statements of Ngubane. En route to the scene of Steven’s murder, some onlookers fired live ammunition at the police and the police responded in kind.
“We have not received any reports of casualties,” said Ngubane. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate is now looking into the shooting.
This incident illustrates Chinguno’s point: the police are not welcome at Marikana. They never have been. And this makes investigating and pre-empting murders such as Steven's difficult.
“The South African Police Service have to find a way to build trust and a relationship in these informal settlements,” he said.