Mine protests continue after claims hospitalised worker killed by police

AS SOUTH Africa’s mining strike threatens to spread, striking miners have claimed that South African police dragged an injured colleague from his hospital bed and killed him – though photos from the scene seem to disprove it.

The allegation adds to accusations that police have used excessive violence against the strikers at the Lonmin-owned Marikana platinum mine, following the 16 August police shootings in which 34 strikers were killed.

As more than 3,000 strikers gathered yesterday at the mine, some waved photographs of a young man they named as Noki Mgcineni. They said he was shot in the foot on 16 August and was taken to the Lonmin-owned ­Andrew Saffy hospital.

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Police then went to the hospital and dragged him away. They beat him up and they killed him. We found him in the mortuary,” Xolani Mzuzu, a striking miner, said.

“We consider him a hero, like Chris Hani,” he said, referring to an anti-apartheid activist murdered in 1993.

Yet photos from local newspapers and an interview with the dead man’s brother indicate that Noki Mgcineni was immediately killed in the hail of police bullets – but whatever the truth is, the case adds to allegations that police shot and killed peaceful miners.

Thousands of striking Lonmin miners, supported by ululating women, gathered yesterday near the spot where the deadly police shooting took place. The striking miners then marched to the nearby Karee mine, also owned by Lonmin, and demanded that all workers join the strike for higher wages or face violence and even death.

The striking mineworkers gave working colleagues a deadline of 1pm to leave the Karee mine or get killed.

One striker said: “After 1pm we don’t want to see anybody in the shaft. Those who come to work tomorrow, we will kill them.” Another shouted: “There will be more blood if we do not get 12,500 rand.”

The strikers said all they want is a monthly minimum wage of 12,500 rand (about £936).

A delegation of seven young strikers was allowed to meet with mine managers. They were led past the phalanx of six police armoured cars and a water cannon truck to the barbed wire gate of the Karee Mine to speak with the two white mine managers, who were flanked by an armed security guard.

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The line of police armoured personnel carriers stood between the mine complex and the throng of singing, dancing strikers and supporters. Police helicopters hovered overhead. March organisers got people to sit down peacefully as armed police in riot gear looked on.

The manager of the Karee mine shaft, Jan Thirion, said: “The delegation from the strikers told me that if I didn’t get all the workers out by 1pm they would burn down the shaft.”

Workers left the mine and walked to the nearby mountain, where the protests started.

Mr Thiroun said the strike was setting a dangerous precedent, with ramifications for a sector that makes up 6 per cent of output in Africa’s biggest economy.

“It’s like putting a gun at someone’s head,” he said. “From here on, if you do something like this, you might as well close all South Africa’s mines.”

The marchers had been joined along the routes by hundreds of supporters. The miners carried only sticks and were not armed with the spears and machetes brandished in previous protests.

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