Johannesburg - Nothing would have made ANC councillor Pauline Masuhlo happier than the end of the Lonmin strike.
The socially aware councillor died in hospital on Wednesday, just a day after thousands of Lonmin workers accepted their employer’s 22 percent salary offer.
Her family now want Masuhlo’s death to be thoroughly investigated because they believe she could have died as a result of a rubber bullet lodged for three days in her leg, close to the knee.
Masuhlo was allegedly shot by police last weekend while they were disarming and dispersing striking miners.
The dead woman’s son, Kopo, said although his mother had sympathised with the strikers, she had not been a part of them when “police drove around in Nyalas, shooting anything that was moving” in Nkaneng informal settlement last weekend.
Kopo, 26, who is employed by a company contracted to Lonmin, said his mother had left home with other women going to their office in Nkaneng.
“I was also in the area when I received a call informing me that my mother had been shot. I found her lying on the ground, bleeding [from] her knee… [She] had another rubber bullet wound in the abdomen, although it was not as serious as the one in her leg,” Kopo said.
Masuhlo has been visible throughout the mineworkers’ strike. She was seen among a group of women who went to the rocky outcrop close to the informal settlement, singing and carrying placards in support of the miners. She was there for the families of the dead men killed by the police and acted as a link between the families and government officials.
Her face had also been seen at the Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate’s Court whenever those arrested made an appearance. She attended at least two funerals of the dead miners, including one in her hometown of Matatiele.
“My mother, who to me was a mother and father, was a true leader to the community of Nkaneng and Wonderkop, and my younger sister and I [had] come to accept that we shared her and our house with the community.”
The Star