Lonmin presses Zuma for early release of the Marikana report

THE CHIEF executive of Lonmin wants President Jacob Zuma to release the findings of a probe into the deaths of 44 people at the company’s Marikana mine as soon as he can.

The inquiry, known as the Farlam Commission, finished its final session of hearings in November, more than two years after the killings. Ten people were killed in fighting between labour unions and the police during a strike, then 34 were shot in a confrontation with officers. The presidency received the commission’s report on March 31.

“It will be helpful when the report comes out”, so that the company could move forward, chief executive Ben Magara said last week. “We don’t think there is anything” that we did not already know that would come out in the findings, he said.

The document, which Zuma says he will release by the end of this month, contains the findings of an investigation into the role the company, labour unions, investors and the police played in events that led up to the deaths, which were the deadliest police action since the end of apartheid.

The company and investors, including deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, have been criticised for their alleged role in what happened by labour unions and civil society groups.

Civil claims from the families of affected workers may follow the report’s release.

“We’ve done a lot of work to build bridges with our employ- ees, with our communities,” Magara said. “I visited all those widows. All those school kids from the deceased miners are in school paid for by Lonmin right now.”

Other measures had also been taken, he said.

“All the widows who wanted jobs, we’ve offered them jobs at Lonmin and they are working right now,” Magara said. “Those who didn’t want jobs have given us their relatives to be employed at Lonmin. We can’t bring back their husbands, we can just definitely make their life less miserable, maybe.”

In another development, Lonmin was considering partnering with a chrome producer to re-treat ore dumps and generate as many as 30 000 ounces of the precious metal annually, Magara said. The company planned to focus on internal projects as it cut back on capital expenditure and expected platinum prices to remain low for the next two years, Magara added. – Bloomberg