Hand hit squad info to cops: NUM

Lonmin chief executive Ben Magara. File photo: Siphiwe Sibeko

Lonmin chief executive Ben Magara. File photo: Siphiwe Sibeko

Published Aug 5, 2014

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Johannesburg - Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa must forward information on hit squads to the police, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Tuesday.

“We also formally challenge Mr Mathunjwa to give the information on this clandestine resolution to fight Amcu to the police and stop public posturing,” said spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu.

He was reacting to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) allegation that NUM had declared war against Amcu.

Amcu on Tuesday called for peace in the North West platinum belt following the murder of its branch secretary.

“We are not a violent union and will not encourage people to take the law into their own hands,” Mathunjwa told reporters in Johannesburg.

“As such we plead with all our members to allow law enforcement agencies to conduct their investigations and hold those responsible to justice.”

Mathunjwa claimed Bongani “Bhayi” Mehlonkomo was killed two weeks after NUM “resolved to incite” its members to fight against Amcu members.

“We cannot help notice, without apportioning blame, that such utterances opportunistically preceded the killing of our leader in Rustenburg, by an organised hit squad,” he said.

Mammburu said NUM had made the call that anybody with information about those who were killing mineworkers should forward such information to the police or legitimate law enforcement agencies.

“It is deplorable that a leader of the union has been sitting on the knowledge of the existence of hit squads for such a long time without giving it to police.”

He said NUM condemned the killing of Mehlonkomo and also condemned the killing of a Samancor human resource officer.

“We condemned all these killings despite the fact that both people killed did not belong to NUM and only one of them belonged to Mr Mathunjwa”s union.”

He called on all workers to unite and all unions to participate in structures and processes geared towards peace among workers and their unions.

Amcu became a dominant union in the Rustenburg platinum belt in 2013, after a violent protest in the area in 2012.

Forty-four people were killed during a wage-related strike at Lonmin in Marikana in 2012.

Thirty-four were killed on August 16, 2012 when police opened fire on them, apparently attempting to disarm and disperse the crowd.

Ten, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the preceding week.

Sapa

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