"Fear and death stalk RBM mine", 4 Sept 2016

The general manager for human resources at Richards Bay Minerals (RBM)...in northern KwaZulu-Natal was gunned down this week in the latest in a series of shocking developments at the troubled Rio Tinto mine...Nzimande joined RBM, which has been plagued by ongoing community protests over jobs and contract opportunities, on January 1 2015...His murder follows those of community activist and local youth leader Thokozani Mbika (33) and his cousin Ndoda Mbika (36) on July 31 – as well as a series of increasingly violent protests by residents in the Mbuyazi and Sokhulu tribal authorities...Thokozani’s killers...left a note at the scene of his murder with a threat to eliminate all the members of a jobseekers committee set up by a local youth committee...Staff members, who spoke to City Press on condition of anonymity, said the situation at the RBM mine and smelter, which employs 2 000 full-time and 2 000 contract workers, was tense...