"Why kill him? Why kill him?" Those were the angry words of a Pretoria woman whose husband was murdered after being caught defying the strike by municipal workers.
Lucas Monahane, 48, was among 11 waste removal workers who were caught on Monday by South African Municipal Worker Union (Samwu) members while on their way to collect waste from various city dumps.
The 11, working for Capacity Outsourcing Suppliers, were captured by marauding Samwu members as they were driving through Capital Park.
Forced from their vehicles, the 11 were loaded into two bakkies – used to round up non-striking workers – and driven to municipal grounds behind Belle Ombre Station in Marabastad, where they were beaten with pangas, knobkerries and other “traditional” weapons.
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| 'All he was trying to do was put food on our table' |
Monahane collapsed and died as he tried to escape from his attackers.
His wife Betty said she could not understand why her husband was killed.
“He was honest and hard-working. All he was trying to do was put food on our table and make sure our children could go to school.
“Why did they have to hunt him down like an animal? Why did they have to make him beg for his life and then kill him?
“These people are worse than animals. They are not even human. They were his friends, yet they killed him even when he begged them for his life,” she said from her Mamelodi East home.
| 'Why did they have to hunt him down like an animal?' |
Monahane said the family was living in fear since her husband’s death.
“Lucas’s friends who survived the attack said they were told they must leave their homes because they and their families will be killed.
“I do not know what I am going to do. How am I going to look after my children?”
Two of Monahane’s colleagues confirmed that they had fled their homes after they were told they would be burnt to death in their houses along with their families.
“We are too scared to go home and have taken our children to the homes of friends and family,” said the men, who begged not to be identified.
Monahane’s employer, Werner Lottering, said Monahane and the other drivers and crew from three other vehicles were on their way from Pretoria West to waste sites in the city when they were attacked.
He said dozens of workers had been attacked by striking municipal workers since the start of the strike last week, with many of them being seriously injured.
“They have been beaten, sjamboked, kicked and hit just because they are trying to do an honest job and earn money to support their families,” he said.
Lottering said that since Monahane’s death drivers and crew were being escorted by police. “It is simply too dangerous to let them drive without a police escort.”
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on August 03, 2005
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