Johannesburg - After last week’s bloodbath at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in North West, tears flowed freely on Monday at the Phokeng mortuary outside Rustenburg as the relatives of the miners identified their brothers, uncles and fathers.
The mourners, who had travelled from as far as the Eastern Cape, Lesotho and Swaziland, had arrived from as early as 8am.
But they were kept waiting until about lunchtime as a delegation from the ministerial task team and the Presidency had not arrived.
Such was the outpouring of emotion from the relatives that even newly elected AU chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma stood up from her chair and walked to the marquee to join the trauma counsellors in comforting those left behind.
Margareth Thelejane, 37, was inconsolable after identifying the body of her father Thabiso, 66. Her wails could be heard as she came out of the morgue and was ushered into the marquee some 15m away.
“Ke a kopa modimo waka tlhe! (Please help me, God), forgive us if we have offended you.” She kept screaming her prayer as she sank into a chair.
Beside her was her mother, Thabiso’s wife, Mmakopano, who bore a blank expression.
Mmakopano had travelled all the way from Matatiele in the Eastern Cape to Marikana on Friday to join her daughter in the search of Thelejane.
Mother and daughter had repeatedly tried to call Thelejane on his cellphone since Thursday’s shooting, without success. His cellphone was continually on voicemail.
“He was such a loving and caring husband. He would always call us to find out if everything was fine. They did not have to kill him,” said Mmakopano.
She still has a photo of her husband on her cellphone.
“He was our only breadwinner. Now we don’t know how we will survive,” she said.
Lungiswa Mpumza, 31, from Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape, was also devastated. She lost her husband and brother last year, and her second brother was among the mineworkers killed during last week’s shooting.
“We kept phoning him but his phone was off. So we just had to come and now this. It’s so painful,” said Mpumza.
A visibly dazed Khuthaza Thukuza hid his anger with the police and the mineworkers after he had identified the body of younger Mpangile, aged 42.
He threw his arms in the air, then moved to a fence and stood there for a moment, wiping his brow in disbelief.
He himself was fired from Anglo Platinum after workers went on a strike recently.
“They kill us for our rights! We are finished! Nkosi yam,” he kept yelling.
As women sat in the marquee, groups compromising mainly men began to form, united in their condemnation of the mine bosses and the police.
Many could be seen pointing to their heads as they showed the gunshot wounds that their dead relatives had suffered during the shooting.
“They hit him right here. He has a big gash here,” said Nyamiso Ndlumbane, who lost his brother Patrick Jijase.
After a short prayer, many started questioning a ministerial task team delegation about what was going to be done to compensate the children and widows of the dead mineworkers.
“The police do strike from time to time, but they never get shot. They shot us because they were sent by the mine owners,” remarked one man.
A memorial service and cleansing ceremony is to be held at the site of the shooting on Thursday.
The Star