Two of The Citizen’s journalists and two anti-mining activists were beaten after the funeral of slain anti-mining activist Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe on the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast at a remote village near Mbizana on Saturday.

Rhadebe died in a hail of bullets two weeks ago when he was attacked by hitmen, apparently for his continued resistance to Australian mining company Mineral Resources Limited (MRL) wanting to mine the titanium-rich sand dunes near his home village of Xolobeni.

The angry mob – armed with knobkerries, machetes, a spade and rocks – approached The Citizen photojournalist Nigel Sibanda, who was taking photos of the sand dunes in the distance, his colleague Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni and two members of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), and began throwing rocks at them and chasing them brandishing weapons.

Sibanda and the two activists were caught by a group of men and beaten with the blunt edge of a machete, knobkerries and bare hands, leaving Sibanda and one of the activists critically injured.

Sibanda’s camera was taken away. Hlatshaneni, who was in their car, was intimidated and forced out of the car by the rest of the group, who hit her in the head and on her shoulder with a spade and asked what she was doing there.

Among the attackers was a woman believed to be in her 80s, wielding a machete. She is the mother of the man rumoured to have ordered Rhadebe’s death, allegedly one Qunywa.

The company’s numerous attempts to obtain and make use of a license to perform open-cast mining in the area has torn the community apart, with some coming out in support of the mining, to the extent of threatening those who were not.