20120825
AFP
Platinum giant Lonmin said Friday it was committed to reaching a deal within days to end a labour dispute that has killed 44 people at a South African mine as authorities revived mediation efforts.

Lonmin, the world's third largest platinum firm, said it would spend the weekend persuading the workers to return to the job on Monday, following the nation's deadliest police action since apartheid.

"For the sake of the company, its many thousands of employees and the industry which supports them we need to find a sustainable peace accord which allows people to return to a working business," Lonmin acting chief executive Simon Scott said in a statement.

"That we are committed to doing in the coming days."

The South African government earlier on Friday resumed mediation aimed at containing the labour discontent among mineworkers.

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant met with union representatives in Rustenburg, the main city in the platinum belt in the north of the country where police gunned down 34 workers outside Lonmin's Marikana mine last week.

They discussed ways to "stabilise the situation and find an amicable solution to the labour dispute", the government said in a statement, without elaborating.

Workers are demanding a wage increase to 12,500 rand ($1,500, 1,200 euros), claiming they currently earn only 4,000 rand.

But according to figures released by Lonmin on Friday, when bonuses and other allowances are included, the rock drill operators who launched the strike earn an average of 9,813 rand before taxes.

Lonmin said only about 24 percent of its 28,000 work force at Marikana signed in on Friday, forcing it to suspend mining yet another day.

"Mining operations will only resume once we have sufficient workers in attendance and the necessary safety procedures have been undertaken," the company said in a statement.

It has said that striking workers would not be punished during a week of mourning for the dead, which started on Monday.

Operations resumed Friday at other platinum mines in the region while managers and workers' representatives hammered out wage agreements.

Fitch rating agency underscored concerns around the industry, saying that nagging social problems could cripple the country's investment climate if not addressed.

"The protests highlight broader structural problems that have long weighed on South Africa's rating," the agency said in a statement.

About 3,000 rock drill operators at the Lonmin mine launched the illegal strike on August 10. It quickly devolved into clashes with non-strikers.

Ten people including two police were killed in the unrest, leading to the crackdown on August 16, when police gunned down 34 armed miners.

Police insist that they used teargas first and only opened fire after miners shot at them. The miners say they were armed only with spears, machetes and clubs.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday named a judicial probe with a wide-ranging mandate to investigate not only the violence but also the labour conditions at the mines.

South Africa also held nationwide memorials for the Marikana victims on Thursday, and bereaved families were beginning to bury their loved ones.

Six of the dead had already been buried by Friday, while three others would be laid to rest over the weekend, the government said.

Four of the victims were from Lesotho, and one from Swaziland, both neighbouring countries to South Africa.