Cosatu, NUM concerned over mine killings

Johannesburg - Cosatu has raised concerns that the signing of a framework agreement for a sustainable mining industry was doing little to quell killings in the platinum belt.

This followed the murder of another shop steward in Mari-kana, North West, on Monday.

Police said the 44-year-old woman was shot at about midday close to her house at a Skoonplaas mine residence.

The death comes a few days before the anniversary of the killing of 34 striking Lonmin workers on August 16 last year.

The woman, who worked at Lonmin’s Karee mine, was killed three days after the country celebrated Women’s Day.

Police spokesman Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said the shop steward was about to enter her gate when the gunman appeared and shot her in the head.

“She was on leave and was returning from the shops when she was shot once in the head. The unknown man then fled the scene while shooting randomly,” Ngubane said.

Recent deaths in the platinum belt have been blamed on the rivalry between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). The unions have pointed fingers at each other whenever a member has been killed.

NUM joined Cosatu in expressing disappointment that no arrests or prosecutions had taken place, despite the continuing spate of killings.

Cosatu said on Monday: “This latest atrocity demonstrates that the Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry, signed by organised labour (with the exception of Amcu), organised business and government on July 3, is simply not being effectively implemented.

“That agreement committed the police, the intelligence service and the courts to act effectively and without delay to bring those guilty of violent crimes to justice.

NUM blamed Lonmin for “instructing NUM shop stewards to return to the operations even though the union cautioned that it was not safe to do so”.

“The union is concerned that the company’s preoccupation with profits and police incompetence may lead to a serious bloodbath in Rustenburg. While many of the suspects are known to the police, none have been arrested or prosecuted,” NUM said.

“There has neither been any beef-up of the security establishment nor has there been any visible policing in the area.”

Ngubane said police were stationed across the platinum belt, and that a “mine crime-combating forum” would be launched tomorrow.

poloko.tau@inl.co.za

The Star