Johannesburg - Fear has again gripped residents of Marikana outside Rustenburg in North West following a bloody weekend in which twin brothers and an Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) regional leader were killed execution-style.
About seven hours after Amcu’s regional organiser, Mawethu Steven, was gunned down at Billy’s Tavern near Photsaneng shaft number 2 on Saturday, five unidentified men stormed a room at Wonderkop’s Dikhibidung informal settlement and shot and killed twin brothers Andile and Ayanda Menzi, aged 24.
According to the twins’ brother Lennox, Andile was shot in the back of the head, while Ayanda was shot from the back, with the bullet exiting his chest.
Their aunt, Thandeka Menzi, 35, was hit with a panga on the head, while her daughter, Sihle Lushetu, 17, was shot in the thigh.
All the survivors have been taken to an undisclosed place in Joburg for their safety.
“As a family, we are extremely shocked and pained by these senseless and cowardly murders. It’s very painful that my brothers died for something they didn’t know (anything about),” Lennox said on Monday night.
Andile worked at a Welkom mine, while his twin was unemployed.
Menzi’s four-year-old son was not hurt, but he was severely traumatised after witnessing the shooting.
Before they opened fire, the assassins had questioned the twin brothers on the whereabouts of the aunt’s partner. When the brothers could not point out his whereabouts, they were shot at point-blank range.
Three sources, including a police officer at Marikana police station, told The Star that the man sought by the killers was a National Union of Mineworkers official at Lonmin.
Two days after Saturday’s shooting, neighbours of the slain twins, other residents and Lonmin employees told of their fear of being attacked.
Many blamed the renewed violence on the ongoing bitter rivalry between Amcu and NUM.
“We are all scared. Nobody is safe here,” said an elderly woman who lives opposite to the yard where the slain twin brothers’ aunt had been renting a room.
Recounting Saturday’s shooting, she said she was shaken by the rattling sound of gunshots, followed by screams.
“I thought it was crickets (firecrackers). Kwa, kwa, kwa. I heard loud screams and then knocks on my door. It was the mother (twins’ aunt). She was screaming, saying ‘Gogo, gogo, they are killing us and the children’,” the grandmother recalled.
Like other neighbours, she said the assassins had called out the man’s name when they stormed the room.
“They killed innocent children (twin brothers) who didn’t know anything. We are so afraid. The police are also scared. They are human beings too,” she said.
Another neighbour, who had taken Menzi’s four-year-old son after the shooting, feared for her husband’s life as he worked at the Lonmin mine, saying “this thing will make us widows and make our children orphans”.
Meanwhile, it was calm but tense on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s stayaway by Amcu members in protest over Steven’s murder.
As darkness fell, there were fears of fresh violence in the township.
The Star