ILLEGAL miners at Aurora mine were shot without being given a chance to surrender

Former Big Brother reality show star and security manager at Aurora mine, Bradford "Bad Brad" Wood, told the Delmas circuit court yesterday that he did not fire a warning shot or ask the miners to give themselves up to security guards.

"I did not want to give a warning shot. I did not want them to see me because they would have shot me or scatter," he said.

Wood said normally he would have told the miners to give themselves up, but it was dark underground and he was scared they would attack him.

"I did not know the terrain. There could have been booby traps. I did not see anybody. I only identified the illegal miners by lights and I fired cover shots," he said.

Wood, Nico Pretorius, Herbert Trouw, Willem Coetzer and Micky Mazela are on trial for murder and attempted murder following a shooting incident in August last year at the embattled Aurora mine in Springs, Ekurhuleni.

Trouw told the court that he saw three bodies on the ground after the shooting.

"But when we went there three days later, the crime scene had been tampered with."

The state alleges the men killed Mathews Sithole, Joy Chauke, Stanley Chilokwana and Kenneth Sithole and attempted to kill another five illegal miners.

Judge Andre Louw said Wood was speculating about how the miners would have reacted because he just fired shots without asking them to give themselves up.

"Do you agree you shot at the direction of illegal miners?" Judge Louw asked.

"But I was not aiming at anyone," Wood replied. "If you fire a lot of shots in the direction of people you had identified by lights ... didn't you foresee that you might hit one of them?" asked Judge Louw. "I did not see the possibility my Lord," Wood replied.

The second accused to testify was Pretorius, who said he did not carry a gun because he did not have a licence.

"I had a JPX (pepper spray gun) which was on my waist. I am not trained to carry a gun."

The trial continues.