Cosatu NW condemns delay in prosecuting killer lion owner 10-08-07 |
Cosatu North West condemns the delay in prosecuting the farm owner whose ten lions killed Tshepo Gaurupi on 17th June 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions in the North West condemns the attitude of the Department of Agriculture and the Director of Public Prosecutions who continue delaying the prosecution of the farm owner of ten lions that mauled nine-year Tshepo Gaurupi on 17th June 2007.
It cannot be right that the matter is still under investigation after nearly two months, whilst the farm owner and his lions are still alive, at the expense of the life of poor Tshepo Gaurupi, while his family are still grieving the loss of their son.
The family has never been consulted; nobody speaks to them on the matter, except talking about the renewal of the permit for the owner to have more lions to kill other farm workers' children or the farm workers themselves.
Once again COSATU owes nobody an apology, to neither a politician, senior person in government, farm owners, bourgeoisie or dictators in government, including those who are employers, and 'leaders' who act as 'mpimpis' in our organisation. We owe nobody an apology nor seek permission to defend the poor working class, in particular those who are in rural areas and farm workers.
Our poor rural communities, poor farm workers and their families live under very bad conditions. Our government and the elected public representatives are very quiet and happy, while our poor communities are dying.
The health of the poor communities and the working conditions of poor farm workers are under attack. Their properties are under attack because of unprocedural evictions by farmers and the police.
How are we going to eradicate poverty and empower women while tbose elected by the people in government to serve the poor people are removed or dismissed by some individual dictators, such as the dismissal of the former Deputy President of South Africa, Comrade Jacob Zuma, in 2005? Today it is the Deputy Minister of Health and MEC of Agriculture in North West.
We think that our president must be consistent in terms of power vested in him to discipline. It cannot be correct that other people use millions of rands for personal trips and others are involved in travelgate scams and yet they are not dismissed. The matter of the Deputy Minister of Health must be investigated in full.
COSATU calls on the North West Provincial Government to act immediately to defend the rights of the poor communities, in particular rural and farm communities.
The Department of Agriculture should act immediately to defend all farm workers and farm communities who work with wild animals such as lions.
The Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice must act immediately to prosecute the farm owner of the lions that killed Tshepo Gaurupi on 7th June 2007.
The Department of Agriculture must not renew the permit of Mr Van Vuuren before the matter is brought to the court.
The police must re-investigate all the cases of farm workers who have been killed by lions and dogs, the victimization of, and racism against, farm workers and the killing of farm workers by farmers, from 1994 to 2007.
COSATU once again calls on all farm workers and the rest of poor communities to report all victimisation, racism, abuse and eviction cases to the nearest Human Rights Commission office and the provincial office in Rustenburg.
COSATU in 2005 strongly condemned the Madibeng municipality and its councillors on the issue of the contaminated water and now calls on them to act immediately to serve the people of Madibeng (Brits) properly with clean water. After two years the matter of the basic needs (water) is still a critical issue.
The people of Madibeng cannot continue to use or drink contaminated water while they are paying for that water.
Once again we call the municipality of Madibeng and its public representatives to stop its attitude of privatising the land, water and electricity and to make sure that they deliver clean water now, as they have committed themselves to eradicating poverty for the poor people of Madibeng.
The workers of Madibeng municipality are faced with retrenchment and increased poverty due to the attitude of Madibeng management and councillors who are privatising and terminating some of the contractors, who employed over 100 workers, because they were not supporting their camps
For example, the contract of one of the contractors who hosted the visit of the ANC Deputy President Comrade, Jacob Zuma, during the launch of the united front forum led by COSATU and SA Council of Churches on 21st July 2007 in Madibeng (Letlhabile township), was terminated immediately after the launch. This cannot be accepted by workers.
For more information feel free to call COSATU Provincial Secretary, Solly Phetoe, on 082 304 4055