More than a decade after the Marikana massacre, mineworkers, widows, families, and unions are expected to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the killing of 34 Lonmin mineworkers by police. Picture: Timothy Bernard/Independent Newspapers
THE Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is probing the killing of the younger brother of one of the victims of the Marikana massacre – 12 years ago – after he was recently shot by cops.
Aphelele Jokanisi, 30, was travelling with a friend, identified as Yandisa Jajula, on June 30 between Flagstaff and Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape when they were allegedly shot by police multiple times while in the presence of eight-year-old Ambusise, Jokanisi’s nephew.
Jokanisi’s elder brother, Semi, was among the 10 mineworkers that police officers and security guards killed in the days leading up to the Marikana massacre on August 16, 2012.
Former North West police deputy provincial commissioner Major-General William Mpembe, Colonel Salomon Vermaak, Warrant Officers Katlego Sekgweleya, Masilo Mogale, Khazamola Makhubela and Constable Nkosana Mguye have applied to be discharged in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) from the charges they face for the killing of Semi Jokanisi, his fellow Lonmin mineworkers Thembalakhe Mati and Pumzile Sokanyile as well as Warrant Officers Tsietsi Monene and Sello Lepaauku on August 13, 2012.
The commission of inquiry into the massacre, chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, heard that the killing by the police of Jokanisi, Mati and Sokanyile may have given the strikers a revenge motive, and the killing by the striking mineworkers of Monene and Lepaauku may have emboldened the mineworkers in their later confrontation with the police.
Ipid spokesperson, Phaladi Shuping, told the Sunday Independent that the case was reported to the directorate and was currently under investigation.
”Two people died in that same incident and the eight-year-old mysteriously survived without being hurt. We confirm that there is no arrest at this stage, and we are still following up on the information,” Shuping said.
The Jokanisi family has been hit by a number of tragedies since the Marikana massacre.
Their mother, Nomandiya Joyce Jokanisi, died in 2021 while still waiting for justice for her son. In January 2016, Semi’s son Ayabonga, committed suicide due to bullying at school, relating to his father’s brutal slaying.
The family had asked Lonmin to transfer Ayabonga to another school, but the company apparently refused.
Mpembe’s lawyer, Jan Ellis, said judgment in the application to be discharged in terms of the CPA would be handed down next month.
Attorney Andries Nkome said he represented a segment of the mineworkers team, the injured and arrested just to separate them from the deceased.
The latter group were represented by Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC, who is leading a team from the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA.
”Our initial claims were for unlawful arrest, detention and malicious prosecution and those claims were instituted on behalf of all 279 arrested miners except those that also suffered gruesome injuries. These were settled in 2018,” he said.
According to Nkome, the state is yet to make offers for a very few of these, while some individuals have also gone missing without trace.
”In 2022 we were before the court and around 50 matters for the injured were set for settlement. All of them were settled save for seven where we still await offers from the state,” he said.
Nkome said as of August 7, the state had indicted that it was still in negotiations about making the offers, although this was 12 years after the massacre.
Last month, the mineworkers’ attorney, Andries Nkome, said the state had accepted liability for the massacre. The second step would be the calculation of the amounts are supposed to be paid over to the claimants.
The mineworkers are claiming for past loss of earnings, past medical expenses, future losses of earnings, future medical expenses, as well as general damages at the North Gauteng High Court, where Nkome is representing 53 people.
In addition, they are claiming unlawful arrest, unlawful detention and the injuries they suffered.
”The state has now conceded that it was wrong in unlawfully arresting the mineworkers, causing injuries, and in prosecuting them and keeping them in detention,” Nkome said.
He said there were now five matters in which the state was not accepting the amounts the mineworkers were claiming.
Nkome further said: ”The state has been looking for reasons why the amounts we are claiming for general damages are not feasible to be paid.
“Essentially, the state is saying we are looking for great amounts. We are saying there hasn’t been anything like Marikana that has happened in South Africa; the last time something similar happened was in Sharpeville in 1960.”
He said his clients cannot be basing the amounts that were supposed to be paid to them on the very same claims that have now been settled by the courts.
In a separate matter before the South Gauteng High Court, 329 mineworkers injured and arrested by the police after the massacre are seeking damages of nearly R1 billion from President Cyril Ramaphosa and Sibanye Stillwater (formerly Lonmin, of which Ramaphosa was a director and shareholder at the time).
From Ramaphosa, Sibanye Stillwater and the government they want R164.5 million for patrimonial and compensable loss suffered as a result of their faulty conduct or any combination of two or all of the defendants, acting collusively.
The mineworkers also claim against Ramaphosa, Sibanye Stillwater and the government non-patrimonial and non-compensable relief in the form of a declarator and other restitutional orders.
”We also have a personal liability suit against Ramaphosa and Sibanye Stillwater in South Gauteng High Court for an unconditional apology and compensation. That matter is yet to be allocated a date after his technical defences trying to dismiss the matter were dismissed,” Nkome said.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za
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