COMMENTARY

(x)What happened here has become as totemic as the Sharpeville massacre before it… The only difference is that this massacre by South Africa police occurred under a democratically elected government.

34 striking miners, seeking better wages at the  British based Lonmin platinum mine,  died on 16th August last year when the police moved in. 

The grief here is still raw here.

 These simple crosses were planted in memory of the dead 

While we were there among the crosses, we spotted a man on top of the rocks looking down at us. We went up to speak to him.  Nkosinomphelo, a  machine operator at the mine, was there that day. He was shot - but survived….

SOT

Nkosi Nomphelo

The police put some razor wire down there. The miners started running. When they found it was closed off, they changed direction. Then the shooting began.

Nkosi

SOT

It’s still very painful. Many families not longer have breadwinners to support them.

Following a national outcry over the massacre the government set up the Marikana commission of inquiry, which got underway late last year.

But Channel 4 News has unearthed shocking evidence that the miners, who are now about to give evidence for the first time, are being harassed and intimidated by the police, in an apparent attempt to silence them.

Bhele Dlunga one of the striker leaders, told me that he recently had an unexpected visit from the police in the dead of night.

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Bhele Dlunga

When I called out “what do you want’ they kicked  in the door and came inside the shack

COMMENTARY

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WAS STRAIGHT OUT OF the APARTHEID ERA POLICE HANDBOOK...

SOT BHELE DLUNGA

As I was lying on the floor, handcuffed, they put a plastic bag over my head..

For 15 minutes I was like this, struggling to get air

I was scared as I couldn’t understand what was happening - or why they were doing this

Bhele says the police officers then took him at gunpoint to a police station, where he was tortured over several days.

SOT

I was put in a chair. My hands were taped to the chair, my feet were cuffed to the legs and my waist was bound too

They put a plastic bag over my head and started beating me.

COMMENTARY

BHELE was told by the police that he was being arrested because he was keeping a GUN in his home. He says he obtained a firearm because he was so fearful for his safety after the massacre. Bhele believes this was an excuse for arresting him because during the questioning  he was continuously asked about his role as a strike leader.

SOT

They kept asking who led the strike, and why were we striking.

I said: ‘Look we’re just trying to get money from our employer.”

COMMENTARY--

Despite his ordeal, Bhele still intends to testify at the commission and to identify the police involved in his torture…

Sibonele Sebopha’s phone never stops ringing these days. It’s usually distress calls from worried miners.

Sebopha was elected as a mine leader after the massacre – and is one of the few who so far been arrested by police.

Just before we arrived 4 more miners leaders were arrested. They were all worried about what might happen to them in police custody..

We’re shocked because when 8 miners were recently arrested we thought that would be it.

The commission led us to believe no one would be arrested while the commission is sitting

I think the police want to disrupt the commission so miners don’t give evidence and testify

Intimidation of miners appears to have sharply escalated as the hearings have drawn closer…

SEGUE 

SOT Shadrack Mtshamba

Still people are getting arrested and people are intimidated. That is totally wrong. We cannot accept that

COMMENTARY

Shadrack Mutshamba has reason to be worried. He was there that day. He says he saw everything. In September last year he took me back to a place where he says he witnessed police carrying out execution-style killings of miners, who were trying to surrender.

SOTShadrack – TRIM THIS DOWN

He wanted to standup and raise his hands. He had a bullet here in the head. He fell down.

 COMMENTARY

So explosive are these allegations Shadrack will be a critical witness at the commissions.

Since speaking out, Shadrack has felt increasingly insecure at work and the recent  arrest of 12 of the miners’ leaders has heightened his fears about giving evidence.

 SHADRACK SYNC

People are getting very much worried. Noone knows why our people are getting arrested, what’s happening and what is going to happen after?

COMMENTARY

Among the men I spoke to there was, I dectected, a growing sense of anxiety. They feel vulnerable as they take on the might of the South Africa police – and the state. One miner who was wounded during the massacre committed suicide in December. His family say he was overwhelmed by trauma.

((UPsot sounds shooting))

SYNC Bhele Dlunga

When Mandela came to power we all thought democracy was here to stay and would be enjoyed by all.But last year democracy turned to oppression

 We were taking back to the days of oppression in South Africa when people were slaughtered, like the kids in Soweto....We got nothing – but death.. If South Africa continues on this way, us working people will be wiped out..

COMMENTARY

We tried repeatedly to speak to the South Africa police about the allegations made to us BY these miners. We received no reply. The South African police have maintained they will only speak about the events in Marikana after a commission of inquiry has completed its work…

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