South African police have killed two more people in a crackdown on striking miners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and a strike leader said on Thursday.
COSATU condemned the brutality of police who have been harshly criticised for the August 16 shootings of 112 striking miners that left 34 dead at London-registered Lonmin PLC platinum mine. The deaths have traumatised the nation that had not seen such state violence since the white minority apartheid regime was brought down in 1994.
COSATU said African National Congress councilor Paulina Masuhlo was shopping on Saturday near the Never Die Tavern at the Wonderkop shantytown were Lonmin miners live when police firing from a speeding armoured car hit several women. Masuhlo was hit in the abdomen and leg and rushed to the hospital, where she died Wednesday, COSATU said.
Police spokesman Dennis Adriao said he was investigating the report of a death. He said police had reported to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate that several people were hit by rubber bullets in a raid to disarm strikers on Saturday, the day after the government ordered a crackdown.
The directorate already has opened 34 murder and 78 attempted murder charges against police in the Aug. 16 shootings.
But no action has been taken against any of the officers involved. The government has said it is awaiting the outcome of a judicial commission of inquiry that is supposed to report to the president in January.
COSATU called for “the immediate identification and suspension of the police officers involved in her (Masuhlo’s) murder. “