Rustenburg - The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) instigated a march at Lonmin's Marikana mine, the Farlam commission of inquiry heard on Tuesday.
“I was not accusing Amcu of having killed. I was accusing Amcu of having instigated the march leading to the killing,” NUM president Senzeni Zokwana said.
He was asked by Amcu advocate Heidi Barnes to withdraw a statement he made during an SA FM radio interview on August 15 last year.
During this interview he said a march on NUM offices on August 12, where two security guards were killed, “smacked of Amcu”.
He said this was his view at the time, and one of the executives of Lonmin held the same view.
Zokwana said these tactics were similar to those Amcu used earlier in 2012 at Impala Platinum.
Barnes asked Zokwana whether saying Amcu was responsible for the security guards' murder was not irresponsible.
She asked him if he wished to retract this statement.
“I never accused Amcu of killing,” he said.
Zokwana clarified, and said he never meant to say Amcu was responsible for the murders, only the march.
He said if that was what he said during the interview he withdrew it.
The commission was continuing its inquiry in Rustenburg of the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana, North West.
Thirty-four striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 were wounded when police opened fire while trying to disperse a group of protesters gathered on a hill near the mine on August 16.
In the preceding week, 10 people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed. - Sapa