The sister of one of the victims of the Marikana massacre will be sworn in as an Economic Freedom Fighters proportional representation councillor in the Matatiele local municipality later this week.
Nomakhephu Mosebetsane, whose elder brother Thabiso was among the Lonmin mineworkers killed by police on August 16 2012, has promised to work hard for her community, which still draws water from streams where livestock also drink. The area also has poorly maintained gravel roads.
Mosebetsane, 42, currently works as a security guard for a company that looks after Eskom substations in Matatiele. She will be one of the EFF's three PR councillors in the municipality following the local government elections two weeks ago.
Mosebetsane, a former ANC member, admitted she was nervous but her colleagues had assured her they would support her. She thanked one of her brother's three sons, Katiso, for helping in the EFF campaign.
Mosebetsane's other brothers, Mohanoe and Lehlohonolo, also work for Lonmin, but the former was medically boarded after being brutally assaulted by colleagues.
Mosebetsane and the EFF's rise in Matatiele mirrors that of the three-year-old party in Rustenburg, where it won 24 seats in the local council.
The EFF also won two wards where the majority of residents are Lonmin and Impala Platinum mineworkers in Rustenburg.
Tragedy haunts families
The death toll of the Marikana massacre continues to rise in far-flung villages of the Eastern Cape long after the police guns have gone silent.
The families of three of the 34 mineworkers killed on August 16, 2012, told Sowetan that their relatives became so distraught at the manner in which the Lonmin employees died that they followed them afterwards.
Slain Lonmin mineworker Mzukisi Sompeta's mother, MaBhengu, said her husband Mxolisi, himself a former mineworker, died in December 2012. According to MaBhengu, 68, Mzukisi was the third of Sompeta's sons to die.
Mzukisi's eldest brother Mncedisi died in January 2012 and another son, Bakhangele, followed soon after. In August that year, Mzukisi died in Marikana after he was brutally assaulted by colleagues.
"After Mzukisi died, he (Mxolisi) was never the same and suffered a stroke," MaBhengu said. MaBhengu is certain Mzukisi's murder and the deaths of his brothers by police took her husband to his grave.
"He kept asking what wrong did he do to lose so many children," she said at her home in KwaDike, Lusikisiki.
The death of another Lonmin rock drill operator Thabiso Mosebetsane had the same effect on his mother, whose health deteriorated after she heard of her son's death.
Mosebetsane's sister Victoria said their 79-year-old mother died in March last year at her modest homestead in Matsheleng, Matatiele, after enduring nearly three years of pain.
Mosebetsane's three sons - Kabelo, Katiso and Tshepo, all in their 20s and unemployed - were orphaned by the Marikana massacre. Their mother, Mosebetsane's first wife, died in 2003.
Mosebetsane remarried and his widow replaced him at Lonmin after his death. They have a five-year-old daughter.
Nine months after Lonmin mineworker Bongani Mdza was killed by police in Marikana, his elder sister MaTshepo Letshaba died. One of her relatives, Rebuselelitsoe Lefulebe, who replaced Mdza at Lonmin, said MaTshepo was never the same after the brutal slaying of her only sibling and died in May 2013.
When Sowetan visited the family in Jabavu, Matatiele, on Saturday, they had just concluded the funeral service of MaTshepo's widower.
In August 2012, when late Lonmin mineworker Phumzile Sokanyile's elderly mother, Mamkholiseni, heard about his son's death, she had a heart attack and died. Mother and son were buried on the same day.
Johannesburg-based clinical psychologist, Mthetho Tshemese, said dealing with a loved one's death is traumatic, especially when it is unnatural.
"Marikana has many deep layers that make those deaths more traumatic and hard to deal with or accept," he said.
Tshemese said it was not unusual for people's health to deteriorate after the loss of a loved one, especially if the survivors struggle to process the loss emotionally.
Sister of Marikana massacre victim steps up as EFF councillor
The sister of one of the victims of the Marikana massacre will be sworn in as an Economic Freedom Fighters proportional representation councillor in the Matatiele local municipality later this week.
Nomakhephu Mosebetsane, whose elder brother Thabiso was among the Lonmin mineworkers killed by police on August 16 2012, has promised to work hard for her community, which still draws water from streams where livestock also drink. The area also has poorly maintained gravel roads.
Mosebetsane, 42, currently works as a security guard for a company that looks after Eskom substations in Matatiele. She will be one of the EFF's three PR councillors in the municipality following the local government elections two weeks ago.
Mosebetsane, a former ANC member, admitted she was nervous but her colleagues had assured her they would support her. She thanked one of her brother's three sons, Katiso, for helping in the EFF campaign.
Mosebetsane's other brothers, Mohanoe and Lehlohonolo, also work for Lonmin, but the former was medically boarded after being brutally assaulted by colleagues.
Mosebetsane and the EFF's rise in Matatiele mirrors that of the three-year-old party in Rustenburg, where it won 24 seats in the local council.
The EFF also won two wards where the majority of residents are Lonmin and Impala Platinum mineworkers in Rustenburg.
Tragedy haunts families
The death toll of the Marikana massacre continues to rise in far-flung villages of the Eastern Cape long after the police guns have gone silent.
The families of three of the 34 mineworkers killed on August 16, 2012, told Sowetan that their relatives became so distraught at the manner in which the Lonmin employees died that they followed them afterwards.
Slain Lonmin mineworker Mzukisi Sompeta's mother, MaBhengu, said her husband Mxolisi, himself a former mineworker, died in December 2012. According to MaBhengu, 68, Mzukisi was the third of Sompeta's sons to die.
Mzukisi's eldest brother Mncedisi died in January 2012 and another son, Bakhangele, followed soon after. In August that year, Mzukisi died in Marikana after he was brutally assaulted by colleagues.
"After Mzukisi died, he (Mxolisi) was never the same and suffered a stroke," MaBhengu said. MaBhengu is certain Mzukisi's murder and the deaths of his brothers by police took her husband to his grave.
"He kept asking what wrong did he do to lose so many children," she said at her home in KwaDike, Lusikisiki.
The death of another Lonmin rock drill operator Thabiso Mosebetsane had the same effect on his mother, whose health deteriorated after she heard of her son's death.
Mosebetsane's sister Victoria said their 79-year-old mother died in March last year at her modest homestead in Matsheleng, Matatiele, after enduring nearly three years of pain.
Mosebetsane's three sons - Kabelo, Katiso and Tshepo, all in their 20s and unemployed - were orphaned by the Marikana massacre. Their mother, Mosebetsane's first wife, died in 2003.
Mosebetsane remarried and his widow replaced him at Lonmin after his death. They have a five-year-old daughter.
Nine months after Lonmin mineworker Bongani Mdza was killed by police in Marikana, his elder sister MaTshepo Letshaba died. One of her relatives, Rebuselelitsoe Lefulebe, who replaced Mdza at Lonmin, said MaTshepo was never the same after the brutal slaying of her only sibling and died in May 2013.
When Sowetan visited the family in Jabavu, Matatiele, on Saturday, they had just concluded the funeral service of MaTshepo's widower.
In August 2012, when late Lonmin mineworker Phumzile Sokanyile's elderly mother, Mamkholiseni, heard about his son's death, she had a heart attack and died. Mother and son were buried on the same day.
Johannesburg-based clinical psychologist, Mthetho Tshemese, said dealing with a loved one's death is traumatic, especially when it is unnatural.
"Marikana has many deep layers that make those deaths more traumatic and hard to deal with or accept," he said.
Tshemese said it was not unusual for people's health to deteriorate after the loss of a loved one, especially if the survivors struggle to process the loss emotionally.
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