The bail hearing of a 38-year-old man accused of the attempted murder of a branch chairman of miner workers’ union, Amcu, in South Africa’s North West province will continue at the Brits Magistrate’s Court next week.
Samkelo Mkhutshwa appeared in the Brits Magistrate’s Court for his bail application on Friday but the State applied for a postponement to consult the investigation team before it could start cross examination.
The state alleged that Samkelo Mkhutshwa shot Malibongwe Mdazo, Association of Mineworkers and Construction (Amcu) branch chairman in Mooinooi near Brits in an attempt to kill him.
Mkhutshwa was arrested in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape province on December 9 in an unrelated case of attempted murder that occurred in Wonderkop, also in the North West, in September. He was released from custody after the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court did not enroll this case as he was not brought to court within the stipulated 48 hours after arrest.
However, he was again arrested on the same day in connection with the attempted murder of Mdazo.
Mdazo was shot several times at a sports ground in Mooinooi on July 22 in what was suspected to be a turf battle between Amcu and the rival union, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Amcu toppled NUM as the dominant trade union in the platinum mines in the North West in 2012 following a violent wage strike at Lonmin in August of that year. The strike sawpolice shoot dead 34 mine workers on August 16. In the previous week, ten others were killed including two Lonmin security guards and two policemen.
Mkhutshwa is charged alongside Nkosinathi Mantashe, who was released on R10,000 bail in November. He was arrested in September.
Outside the court, Amcu members said another man was arrested in the Eastern Cape in connection with the attempted murder of Mdazo and he was expected to appear in court there so that his case could be transferred to the North West where the offence allegedly took place.
– African News Agency (ANA)
