Pretoria - Two Lonmin security guards apologised and pleaded for mercy before protesting mineworkers killed them, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.
“They apologised but no one listened to them. We just killed them,” a police witness identified only as Mr X told the inquiry in Pretoria.
“They apologised from inside the car. Their car was damaged before they were killed.”
Mr X was questioned by Karel Tip, for the National Union of Mineworkers. He also represents the widow of Hassan Fundi, one of two security guards strikers killed on August 12, 2012. The other was Frans Mabelani.
“With connection to Mr Fundi and Mr Mabelani, can you tell us whether those security officers got the opportunity to say anything, to plead for their lives?” Tip had asked him.
Mr X may not be named to protect his identity. He is under police witness protection and is testifying at the commission via video link from an undisclosed location.
He claims he was part of a group of striking Lonmin mineworkers at Marikana, near Rustenburg, who underwent traditional rituals and participated in the murders of Fundi and Mabelani.
He has detailed in an affidavit how flesh was cut from Fundi's face, how sangomas cut this into smaller pieces, mixed it with blood, and burnt it to ashes for the miners to eat. This was apparently to prepare them for a confrontation with police.
Tip said contrary to Mr X's evidence, post-mortem results did not indicate a gunshot wound to Fundi's head, but a fractured skull and jaw.
Mr X said Fundi sustained the fractures when the protesters attacked him.
“I saw Magubane (a mineworker) attacking him. These people have said I should not say their names in this commission.
“Magubane, Xolani, Boy, Anele and others attend the commission and are inside this commission,” said Mr X.
Thirty-four people, mostly striking Lonmin mineworkers, were shot dead in a clash with police in Marikana on August 16.
In the preceding week, 10 people, including two policemen and the two security guards, were killed. The commission is investigating the 44 deaths.
Sapa