Johannesburg – Five people have been arrested for allegedly forcing four workers at Anglo American’s Amandelbult mine to strip naked, Limpopo police said on Tuesday.

“They were arrested on 1 November and they appeared in court on 2 November, facing charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, indecent assault, and illegal gathering,” Colonel Ronel Otto said.

The outcome of the trial held at Northam Magistrate’s Court was not immediately available.

According to media reports on Tuesday, the SA Human Rights Commission was investigating reports that photographs of non-striking mineworkers who had been stripped naked had been circulated on social media.

“As the commission, we will be taking up this matter,” SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena told SAfm.

“We have mandated our Limpopo office to take up the matter at the mine, and we… call on the police to investigate this, because this is clearly a criminal act.”

The New Age reported on Monday that strikers forced four workers at the Amandelbult mine to strip naked to punish them for reporting for work.

A photograph in the newspaper showed three men over the age of 50 and a woman in her 30s standing naked in front of a crowd of striking workers.

Mangena said the SAHRC would work with the Commission for Gender Equality to “look at what can be done to protect the rights of women and men whose pictures have been circulating (on) the social media”.

The New Age reported on Tuesday that the administrators of social networking site Facebook removed the pictures on Monday afternoon.

Anglo American Platinum miners are currently on an unprotected strike at its Union and Amandelbult mines in Limpopo. – Sapa