Fear+after+driver+butchered+by+strikers,+Star,+Aug+3,+2005

The Star, Johannesburg, August 3, 2005
=Fear after driver butchered by strikers=


 * By Graeme Hosken**

"Why kill him? Why kill him?" This was the angry question of a Tshwane woman whose husband was murdered after being caught defying a nationwide strike by municipal workers.

Lucas Monahane (48) was among 11 waste removal workers caught on Monday by SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) members while on their way to collect waste from various city dumps.

The 11, who worked for Capacity Outsourcing Suppliers, were captured by marauding Samwu members.

Forced from their vehicles, the 11 were loaded into two bakkies - used to round up non-striking workers - and driven to municipal grounds behind Belle Ombre station in Marabastad, where they were beaten with pangas and knobkerries.

Monahane collapsed and died as he tried to escape from his killers.

His distraught wife, Betty, yesterday said she could not understand why her husband had been killed.

"He was honest and hard- working. All he was trying to do was put food on our table and make sure our children could go to school.

"Why did they have to make him beg for his life and then kill him?

"They were his friends, yet they killed him even when he begged them for his life," she said from her Mamelodi East home.

Monahane said her family were living in fear since her husband's death.

"Lucas's friends, who survived the attack, said they were told they must leave their homes because they and their families will be killed.

"I do not know what I am going to do. How am I going to look after my children?" she asked.

The threats were confirmed by two of Lucas's colleagues, who said they had fled their homes after they were told they would be killed and burnt in their houses.

Werner Lottering, Monahane's employer, said that since his death, their drivers and crew were now being escorted by police officers.

The police appealed to "right-minded communities" to come forward with information that would lead to the arrest of Monahane's killers.

Following last week's three-day strike, Samwu's national executive committee yesterday announced that workers would begin lunchtime picketing at their workplaces from today. This would be followed by an indefinite, full-blown strike from Monday.

Samwu's deputy general secretary, Andile Sihlahla, said the union had indicated its willingness to resolve the wage dispute by reducing its demand to an 8% increase or R350.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2814947**