COMMENTARY
The strike and the violence at the Lonmin mine in South Africa has raised the issue of working conditions and wages ... a situation more like the Dickensian era than something that should prevail in the enlightened 21st century.

One of my first 'jobs' when I was still a student was at a Royal Ordnance factory in the UK. It was a summer job to give me some experience of real engineering and factory work. I lived in a company 'hostel' for this period of time, bunk houses that had been used in World War II to house the workers needed for ordnance production during that period.

Years later I was in Southern Africa and saw first hand the hostels that the miniing companies were providing for their workers ... many, if not most, of which were migrant workers. The conditions were a lot worse than the bunk house I had experienced ... and the rules imposed on the men by the employers were draconian.

Frankly it is high time that the owners and executives of the mining companies in South Africa and other parts of the world took a hard look at how they conduct their business. The whole question of equity needs to be revisited ... the exploitation of natural resources is not just an issue of proerty rights in a legal sense, but mush more. Investors deserve a fair rate of return, but all the other stakeholders deserve a fair share as well.

The money profit accounting that is used to measure perfoirmance oif economic activity only considers the performance from the perspective of the organization. TrueValueMetrics also consideres performance from the perspective of place and people.
Peter Burgess

S Africa commemorates mine-violence victims ... Mood tense as services are held for 44 people killed during strike at platinum mine in North West province.

IMAGE Hundreds of people attended memorial services for 44 people killed in strikes at Lonmin PLC's Marikana mine [AFP]

Memorial services are taking place across South Africa for the 44 victims of last week's violence, who died after workers at one of the country's largest platinum mines began a strike demanding a pay rise.

Thirty-four miners were killed last Thursday when police opened fire on them at a Lonmin-operated platinum mine in Marikana in the country's North West province. Police said they opened fire in self-defence.

Ten other people, including two policemen, were also killed in earlier strike violence.

Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from the site of the shooting where hundreds of people gathered on Thursday to commemorate the victims, said the mood was tense.

'People were very emotional, very angry [at the memorial service], and they want answers,' she said.

'And they kept saying over and over again they feel mine workers should get a pay increase and their living conditions should be improved.

'President [Jacob] Zuma wasn't at this memorial service. That has disappointed a lot of people, made some people very angry. They feel sidelined by their president, they feel sidelined by their government,' she added.

Political battle

Mutasa said the miners and the mining community had earlier told the African National Congress (ANC)-led government, which planned to hold an official memorial service at the site of the shootings, that they would not be dictated to and that they would hold their own service.

She said the police shooting was giving rise to a political battle, with public criticism growing against the government's handling of the incident.

Julius Malema, the expelled leader of the ANC Youth League, attended Thursday's memorial service at Marikana, where he addressed mourners and families of the deceased.

Malema had in the previous days publicly criticised the government and the president.

Mutasa said: 'What's happened in the past few weeks is that [Zuma's] political opponents have come out and try to jump onto the bandwagon ... [Malema] whipped people into a frenzy calling for a lot of things to happen, saying to them that the ANC and President Zuma isn't looking out for their interests.'

Malema said the government had turned in the people and he urged the workers to continue their strike.

He had earlier led miners to a police station on Tuesday to open a murder case against the policemen who opened fire on the striking miners.

The violence began when mine workers demanding a 300 per cent pay rise began the strike, which degenerated into clashes as police clashed with armed miners.

Unrest spreads

Meanwhile, Zuma on Thursday announced a three-member judicial commission of inquiry to probe last week's deadly violence.

The commission's mandate, among other things, was to probe the conduct of the mining company Lonmin. The commission would also examine the conduct of the SA Police Service, and probe the conduct of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and its rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), Zuma told reporters.

A turf war between the ANC-allied NUM and AMCU - which spilled over to other mines along the platinum belt on Wednesday - is raising fears that anger over low wages and poor living conditions could generate fresh violence.

Analysts have raised concerns that the unrest could spread to gold producers.

Impala Platinum, the world number two platinum producer, also gave warning on Thursday that the industrial action could become more widespread.

'The platinum industry is experiencing increased levels of industrial action ... These developments pose a significant risk to the industry,' Terence Goodlace, Impala's chief executive, said.

Goodlace said the trade union rivalry was still 'fairly volatile'.

Labour disputes in South Africa's platinum belt have turned increasingly violent this year.

In February, three people died at the Impala's mine during a wildcat strike.

Investment woes

The strike at Lonmin's Marikana mine has driven up platinum prices and stoked worries about investing in Africa's biggest economy, where chronic unemployment and income disparities threaten social stability.

Platinum prices were at it highest in three and a half months and signs that of the turf war between unions will spread looked set to increase it further as investors refocus on supply risks rather than demand.

Platinum mining companies are struggling to reconcile opposing pressures to improve employment terms while dealing with a sharp drop in demand, which forced prices below the cost of production.

Swiss bank UBS said the situation in South Africa could take weeks to resolve.

It estimated a loss of platinum production from the unrest of up to around 70,000 ounces, and flagged potential for trouble to spread to bigger producers.