Johannesburg - Cosatu has condemned the murder of a female miner near Lonmin's Marikana mine in North West and urged workers to stop killing each other.
“Cosatu calls on all the workers to stop killing each other, focus on fighting against capital, and not to allow capital to make them fight among themselves,” Congress of SA Trade Unions North West secretary Solly Phetoe said in a statement on Tuesday.
The trade union federation was disappointed that 12 months after the violence that broke out in Marikana, no one had been arrested for a number of killings.
“Cosatu calls on the national minister 1/8of police 3/8 and the national commissioner of police to go down to Marikana and make sure that the situation is brought back to normal, and all the people who are behind these killings are arrested,” Phetoe said.
The SA Communist Party (SACP) also condemned the latest murder, and sent condolences to the family.
“We send our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the family of the bereaved daughter of the soil... The SACP is taken aback by this barbaric act, committed during the month in which all South Africans are celebrating women's month,” the party said in a statement.
The SACP also urged community members to assist in the fight against criminals.
On Monday, a female miner was shot dead at a residential area in Wonderkop, near Lonmin's Marikana mine outside Rustenburg.
The 44-year-old was shot in the head while returning from a shop at Wonderkop around 12.30pm, Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.
“This is a mine residential area that is not far from Rowland Shaft and in close proximity to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union's (Amcu) offices at Lonmin.”
The woman, who worked at Four Belt Shaft, was off duty at the time.
The gunman fled the scene, shooting randomly. Six 9mm cartridges were found nearby.
A case of murder was opened. The motive was not immediately known.
On August 16 last year, 34 miners were shot dead and 78 wounded when police fired on them while trying to disperse a group gathered on a hill near Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana.
In the preceding week, 10 people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed in strike-related violence.
Sapa