Shot guards: Link to strike?

2006-06-12 13:57

Johannesburg - Two security guards were murdered on the East Rand at the weekend, police said on Monday.

Their bodies were found at the Clover SA plant in Springs just after midnight on Monday morning, spokesperson Superintendent Andy Pieke said.

"The one guard, 56, was found shot in the back of the neck in the guard room. The other guard, Glen Malaza, 27, was also found shot dead in the body in a piece of veld close by," Pieke said.

"The motive for the murders has not been established."

Pieke said the 56-year-old guard's next of kin still had to be traced and informed, which was why he could not be identified.

The two worked for a security company called Fidelity Strongbox.

Anyone with information about the murders is asked to contact Captain Gerhard Fouche of the East Rand Serious and Violent Crimes unit on 011-871-5611 or 082-326-3933.

Link to strike?

Although Pieke did not link the deaths to an ongoing and violent strike by security guards, more than 20 guards have died since the start of the strike on March 23.

Another security guard was murdered in the vicinity last week.

Pieke said 40-year-old Godfrey Mabuza's body was discovered with a gunshot wound to the neck on Wednesday evening at the New Era railway station, near the Clover SA plant in the same industrial area.

"The man had just completed working his shift as a security guard when he was shot. The motive of the murder is unknown but we do not suspect robbery as nothing was taken from him," Pieke said at the time.

Police also last week found the bodies of three security guards near Duduza and Tsakane, on the East Rand.

On May 22 a guard was shot and wounded, apparently by striking colleagues, along Batten Road in Morninghill, Bedfordview.

The incident took place at 17:30 when a guard on duty at a boom gate was held up by five men who drove up in a white Opel.

"The guard was threatened with a firearm and forced into the guard room where he was tied up. Shortly thereafter a colleague arrived with a Coin patrol vehicle," Pieke said afterwards.

"The colleague stopped the car unaware of what was happening. Four men then ran up to the patrol vehicle and shot the colleague in the neck. They took his firearm and fled."

Pieke said one of the attackers was allegedly heard saying something along the lines of "you are working while we are on strike".

- SAPA