SOUTH AFRICA’S National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has welcomed the sentencing of the murderers of two of its members.

The Oberholzer Regional Court in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, sentenced five of six defendants on Monday for the murders at the Harmony gold mine in Kusasalethu in November 2012.

Two were found guilty of the murder of two NUM members, identified by NUM Carletonville regional secretary Mbuyiseli Hibana as Mr Tyefini and Mr Madikizala.

Three more were convicted of public violence and given suspended sentences of five years. The sixth was acquitted.

The six accused are all members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), formed in 1998 by expelled NUM official Joseph Mathunjwa.

They attacked NUM members next to the union’s on-site office, where the branch membership was meeting.

Mr Hibana said: “The sentence handed down today has vindicated NUM as it has always said that its members are harassed, intimidated and killed for merely associating themselves with the union.

“This sentence will send a very strong and vivid message to all those who find it difficult to tolerate competition.”

Mr Hibana was yesterday attending another trial of AMCU members who allegedly stripped naked a female NUM member, Ms Masono, in front of the company management. The verdict in that case is expected today.

Yesterday the NUM and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) welcomed the signing of a 10-point plan to limit job losses in the crisis-hit mining sector, although Amcu rejected the agreement.