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* South Africa: Another Compilation of Marikana Massacre Analyses
[Debate] (Fwd) Marikana Massacre follow-up: were victims fleeing tear gas?, Malema stirs, miners' wives grieve, Justice Malala's class analysis, Lonmin croc tears, Moneyweb worries
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Some Marikana miners say they will fight to the death
Image by: KEVIN SUTHERLAND
Frantic wives searched for missing loved ones, President Jacob Zuma rushed home from a regional summit and some miners vowed a fight to the death as police announced a shocking casualty toll from the previous day's shooting by officers of striking miners: 34 dead and 78 wounded.
Other media put this figure at 44 dead.
Wives of miners at the Lonmin Marikana platinum mine, northwest of Johannesburg, took the place of dead and wounded husbands on Friday in staging a protest.
But this time instead of asking for higher wages as the miners had done, the women demanded to know why police had opened fire Thursday with automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns on the strikers, many of whom had been armed with spears, machetes and clubs, as they rushed toward the officers.
Police said at a news conference that it was in self-defence, noting that strikers even possessed a pistol taken from a police officer they had beaten to death on Monday. But video footage indicates the miners may have simply been trying to flee tear gas that police had fired at them moments earlier.
As the miners rushed away from a hill they had occupied and that was being tear-gassed, police opened fire, including with automatic rifles. Police were perhaps jumpy, knowing that the strikers were armed and that two officers had already died earlier in the week.
"Police stop shooting our husbands and sons," read a banner carried by the women on Friday. They kneeled before shotgun-toting police and sang a protest song, saying "What have we done?" in the Xhosa language.
National police Chief Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega told a packed news conference that Thursday was a dark day for South Africa and that it was no time for pointing fingers, even as people compared the shootings to apartheid-era state violence and political parties and labour unions demanded an investigation.
Zuma returned home from a summit in Mozambique and announced an official inquiry into the killings, which he called shocking and tragic. The president headed directly to the mine, 70 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, where his office said he would visit injured miners in the hospital.
At least 10 other people were killed during the week-old strike, including the two police officers battered to death by strikers and two mine security guards burned alive when strikers set their vehicle ablaze.
Makhosi Mbongane, a 32-year-old winch operator, said mine managers should have come to the striking workers rather than send police. Strikers were demanding monthly salary raises from R4 000 to R12 500. Mbongane vowed that he was not going back to work and would not allow anyone else to do so either.
"They can beat us, kill us and kick and trample on us with their feet, do whatever they want to do, we aren't going to go back to work," he told The Associated Press. "If they employ other people they won't be able to work either. We will stay here and kill them."
Research released by the Bench Marks Foundation, a non-governmental organisation monitoring the practices of multinational mining corporations, found that Lonmin had a bad track record with high levels of fatalities and keeping workers in "very poor living conditions".
According to the report released Tuesday, workers often live in deteriorating shacks without electricity. Some children suffer from chronic illnesses due to sewage spills caused by broken drainage.
The mining company said earlier that it would withhold comment on the report until the conflict situation cooled down.
Myriad problems are facing South Africa 18 years after white racist rule ended, including growing inequality between a white minority joined by a small black elite while most blacks endure high unemployment and inadequate housing, health care and education.
The shootings "awaken us to the reality of the time bomb that has stopped ticking - it has exploded," The Sowetan newspaper said in a front-page editorial Friday. "Africans are pitted against each other... They are fighting for a bigger slice of the mineral wealth of the country."
The youth wing of the ruling African National Congress party argues that nationalization of the nation's mines and farms is the only way to redress the evils of the apartheid past. Zuma's government has played down those demands.
Lonmin PLC chairman Roger Phillimore issued a statement Friday saying the deaths were deeply regretted.
At hospitals in the area, people gathered, hoping to find missing family members among the wounded. At the scrubland scene of the killings, a woman carrying a baby on her back said she was looking for a missing miner.
"My husband left yesterday morning at 7am to come to the protest and he never came back," said Nobantu Mkhuze.
Shares in Lonmin PLC fell as much as 8% Friday. Since violence broke out last weekend at the Marikana mine, shares have fallen by as much as 20%, wiping some R5 billion off the company's market value.
The company, the world's third-largest platinum miner, has also been hit by Thursday's announcement that chief executive Ian Farmer is hospitalised with a serious illness.
Meanwhile Friday, police investigators and forensic experts watched by about 100 people combed the scene of the shooting, planting multicoloured cones and numbered placards to mark evidence amid the dirt and bushes where the shooting took place. Police also searched the rocky outcropping where thousands of miners had gathered daily to strike.
The South African Police Service defended officers' actions, saying in a statement that they were "viciously attacked by the [strikers], using a variety of weapons, including firearms. The police, in order to protect their own lives and in self-defence, were forced to engage the group with force."
Poor South Africans protest daily across the country for basic services like running water, housing and better health and education. Protests often turn violent, with people charging that ANC leaders have joined the white minority that continues to enrich itself while life becomes ever harder for the black majority.
The Law Society of South Africa said the miners "have been the victims of an escalating breakdown in conflict resolution, particularly in the mining industry."
"This breakdown is symptomatic of our society and body politic in South Africa," the society added.
While the initial walkout and protest focused on wages, violence has been fueled by the struggles between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers and the upstart and more radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.
NUM secretary-general Frans Baleni has said that some of his union members were on a hit list, including a shop steward killed Tuesday by strikers.
***
http://www.citypress.co.za/Multimedia/South-Africa/Watch-Its-the-po...
***
Cops distance themselves as Lonmin miners welcome Malema
Around three police nyalas were parked in the area.
Police heeded Malema's call and moved their vehicles about a kilometre away from the gathering.
Malema arrived in Wonderkop a short while ago.
He was given a warm welcome by the residents and mineworkers when he arrived.
Women ululated while men, who had been seated, stood up and clapped their hands.
Some of the women were waving placards reading: "Julius Malema, Boeremag, please stand up".
One woman who held a placard with that message explained that she meant to send a message to Malema that the boer (white men) have killed their husbands.
She said they wanted Malema to help them.
Shot in the back
Another woman carried a placard reading "R500 reward for killing police, Musina to Cape Town do your best."
She explained that her placard meant that anyone who could kill police officers from the start of the country in Limpopo to the tip of it in the Western Cape would receive a R500 reward.
For the first time, women and men were seated in one gathering since the start of the unrest.
The women were still however, separated from the men by a fence.
Former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) Spokesperson, Floyd Shivambu and suspended league secretary, Sindiso Magaqa were also present.
Earlier, Shivambu said he understood the pleas of the miners and said the police were wrong to utilise maximum force to disperse them.
"Most of the people were shot at the back, indicating that they were running away so police actions were not justified," he said.
A total of 34 people were killed in a shootout that erupted near the mine on Thursday when police tried to disperse striking miners.
More than 78 people were injured. Another 10 people had by then been killed in the violent protests at the mine over the past week.
President Jacob Zuma visited Lonmin yesterday where he condemned the violence. He called for an inquiry into the incident. – Sapa.
***
Malema: Miners were killed to protect Cyril Ramaphosa shares
Addressing Lonmin miners, Malema has called for Zuma and Mthethwa to resign, and claimed police were protecting the interests of Cyril Ramaphosa.
President Jacob Zuma and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa must resign following the death of mineworkers at Lonmin's Marikana operations, in the North West, expelled ANC Youth League President Julius Malema said on Saturda
"President Zuma decided over the massacre of our people, he must step down."
Malema was speaking in Wonderkop where around 34 people were killed in a clash between police on Thursday.
He said Mthethwa must also resign because the police shot people under his command.
"He must resign because he failed in executing his duties."
Malema told the crowd that the police were supposed to protect them and not kill them.
"It has never happened before that so many people were killed in a single day and it became normal," he said.
Malema, who pledged his support for the striking mineworkers urged them not to retreat and to stand firm on their demand for a R12 500 salary.
Not a president
He said the reason the police shot at the people was because they were protecting the interest of ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member, Cyril Ramaphosa, who, he alleged, owned shares in Lonmin.
"Lonmin had a high political connection that is why our people were killed. They were killed to protect the shares of Cyril Ramaphosa," he said.
He told the gathering that it was amazing that Ramaphosa was able to buy a buffalo for R18-million but could not pay them the R12 500 they were demanding.
Earlier today, the Shanduka Group, which was formed by Cyril Ramaphosa, pledged R2-million for the burial of scores of people killed in the Lonmin clashes.
Malema said one reason why he called for the resignation of President Zuma was that he failed in his duty to protect the citizens of the country.
"When you were killed, Zuma was still in the country. He decided to go to Maputo, Mozambique and once he was there he was advised that he made a wrong decision. That is why he returned to the country yesterday [Friday]."
He told the crowd that if they were asked who is the president of the country, they should say they do not have a president.
"I don't have a president. Zuma is not a president."
He called on the mineworkers to form a militant union that would represent their interests.
He said that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was no longer a union that represented the interests of the workers but was interested in making more money.
"NUM is not a union, it's a company. They hold shares in mining companies, that is why when there are problems in the mines they are the first to sell out the workers."
The crowd dispersed peacefully after Malema's address.
A total of 34 people were killed in a shootout that erupted near the mine when police tried to disperse striking miners.
More than 78 people were injured. Another 10 people had by then been killed in the violent protests at the mine over the past week. – Sapa.
***
http://www.thebellforum.com/showthread.php?t=79462&s=bc03c0b4d1...
Miners' wives rage at South African police brutality after 'massacre'
Women performing apartheid-era toyi-toyi dance condemn mine company as they wait for news of victims of police shootings
Nosisieko Jali's husband is missing. She has heard a rumour that a bullet hit him in the head, yet he survived. One witness said all his clothes were torn. "I don't know where he is," said Jali, numb with anxiety. "The hospital wouldn't let me come inside. I am hurting."
Jali is among scores of wives at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana still waiting to discover if their husband is in a jail, hospital or mortuary after one of the bloodiest days in South Africa since apartheid.
Thirty-four people were killed and 78 injured on Thursday when police with automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns opened fire on the strikers, many of whom were armed with spears, machetes and clubs as they demonstrated for higher wages. The shocking images, beamed to TV viewers around the world, provoked comparisons with massacres by the white minority regime of the country's past.
On Friday, next to the killing field, wives took the place of their dead and wounded husbands to stage an angry, emotionally charged demonstration. The women raged against police brutality, mine exploitation and a lack of official information that has left them agonisingly in the dark.
"How can we know whether people are dead or missing?" demanded Nowelcime Bosanathi, 35. "My husband went to the protest with a stick. I worried he might be dead. Then he called last night to say he's in a police van and he doesn't know where he's going. Now his phone is on voicemail."
Waving sticks, whistling and ululating, the women performed the apartheid-era toyi-toyi dance up and down a dirt road. They sang songs, some mournful, some defiant, warning: "When you strike a woman, you strike a rock" and invoking the memory of heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle such as Oliver Tambo. They joined hands in a circle for a soulful rendition of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, the national anthem and originally a hymn. They kneeled before police armed with shotguns and sang "What have we done?" in the Xhosa language.
The group of about 100 women also brandished homemade cardboard placards with handwritten slogans condemning the police. "Police stop shooting our husbands and sons," one said. Another, referring to the new national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, read: "Piega you celebrating your position by blood of our families."
Primrose South, 51, was still waiting for news about Mishack Mzilikazi, 35, who lives on her property and is considered part of the family. "I last saw him at 8am on Thursday. He was going to work with his phone but now it's off. He also had a stick and he was quiet.
"I don't know where he is now. He could be in prison or he could be dead. I don't know."
She added: "We are feeling bad because the children now are crying, are hungry, are afraid even to sleep at night. The wives have no husbands now. Their husbands are lying dead in the forest."
Whatever did happen here there is no shortage of blame – and competing accounts. The women point at the police and the Lonmin mine management.
South, who works as a mine store manager, said: "The management sent the police to kill our husbands, brothers and sons. But we will fight for our rights like them."
Many of these women followed their husbands from Eastern Cape province or neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Swaziland or Zimbabwe. They live in the nearby Nkanini settlement in cramped shacks with pit toilets and an intermittent water supply. Above one of one of the world's richest platinum deposits, goats wander in adjacent scrubland strewn with discarded plastic bags and rubbish.
They denied that the workers had opened fire first and said a turf war between rival unions was a sideshow to the dispute over pay.
The unions are scrapping for members. The National Union of Mineworkers, a supporter of the ANC, had signed up to a pay deal with Lonmin. But the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) rejected this and pushed for wages to be trebled. This comes amid a wider debate on whether the governing African National Congress (ANC) should curb mine owners' power.
The youth league of the ANC argues that nationalisation of the country's mines and farms is the only way to redress the injustices of the past. The youth league said: "South Africa's exploitative mining regime, capitalist greed and the poverty of our people is the cause."
For its part, Lonmin announced that it would provide support to all the families that have suffered loss this week. Simon Scott, its chief financial officer, said: "We have established a help desk at Lonmin's Andrew Saffy Hospital, which will help families with the identification of bodies, assist with all the burial arrangements and offer bereavement counselling.
"Lonmin commits to provide funding for the education of all the children of employees who lost their lives. This funding will cover education costs from primary school to university."
The company's London-listed share price slumped 9% early yesterday, though it ended 1.3% down at 639.5p. It plunged to a nine-year low on the Johannesburg exchange, where it is also listed.
The South African Institute of Race Relations called for the immediate suspension of all police officers involved in the shootings.
It said: "There is clear evidence that policemen randomly shot into the crowd with rifles and handguns. There is also evidence of their continuing to shoot after a number of bodies can be seen dropping and others turning to run.
"This is reminiscent of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960," it said.
The police, though, insisted they acted in self-defence, arguing that the mine workers even possessed a pistol taken from a police officer they are alleged to have beaten to death on Monday.
At least 10 other people were killed during the week-old strike at the mine,80 miles north-west of Johannesburg, including two police officers said to have been battered to death by strikers and two mine security guards.
It was into this highly charged atmosphere that President Jacob Zuma stepped, having cut short a visit to a regional summit. He announced that a commission of inquiry would be held into the tragedy. "This inquiry will enable us to get to the real cause of the incident and derive the real lessons too," he said during a visit to Marikana.
"We've all been saddened and dismayed by the events of the past few days and hours around the Marikana mine. The loss of life among workers and members of the police service is tragic and regrettable.
"These events are not what we want to see or want to become accustomed to in a democracy that is bound by the rule of law and where we are creating a better life for all our people.
"Today our thoughts are primarily with the families of those who have lost their lives. As a government and as fellow citizens, we offer our sincere condolences to families who have lost their loved ones. Our thoughts are also with those who are recovering."
He continued: "The events of the past few days have unfortunately been visited upon a nation that is hard at work addressing the persistent challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
"We undertake this work in conditions of peace and stability, working with all sectors in our country.
"We assure the South African people in particular that we remain fully committed to ensuring that this country remains a peaceful, stable, productive and thriving nation, that is focused on improving the quality of life of all, especially the poor and working class.
"It is against this background that we have to uncover the truth about what happened here."
He went on: "Today challenges us to restore calm and share the pain of the affected families and communities.
"This is not a day to apportion blame. It is a day for us to mourn together as a nation. It is also a day to start rebuilding and healing."
http://www.thebellforum.com/showthread.php?t=79498
***
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/17/marikana-action...
The Marikana action is a strike by the poor against the state and the haves
The shooting at Lonmin's Marikana mine exposes weaknesses at the heart of South African society
by Justice Malala
Friday 17 August 2012 15.30 EDT
The story of the London-listed Lonmin's Marikana mine shootings is that of a trade union that cosied up to big business; of an upstart and populist new union that exploited real frustration to establish itself; and of police failure.
It is a story which exposes South Africa's structural weaknesses too: we are one of the world's top two most unequal societies (with Brazil). Poverty, inequality and unemployment lie at the heart of the shootings this week.
The Lonmin story starts with the 360,000-member National Union of Mineworkers, formed in the 1980s to fight apartheid labour laws. Under the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa – ironically now on the board of Lonmin, which owns the mine where the shootings occurred – the union became the biggest affiliate to the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), a powerful ally of the ruling ANC.
For more than a decade Cosatu has concentrated on socioeconomic and political issues. Instead of organising on the shop floor it has harried the ANC government to adopt increasingly left-leaning policies. The NUM, one of the two biggest unions within Cosatu, has been at the forefront of these struggles.
Over the past few years the NUM has been split by succession battles inside the ANC, with the current leadership campaigning for ANC President Jacob Zuma to win a second term. The union has paid a heavy price for this. At the Lonmin mines its membership has declined from 66% of workers to 49% and it has lost its organisational rights. Disgruntled and expelled union leaders had in the meantime started a new union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, and were organising on the NUM's turf.
The NUM's achilles heel was that its relationship with mine owners and the Chamber of Mines had become too close. Its secretary, Frans Baleni, is a more strident critic of the nationalisation of mines than many business leaders. The union has also allegedly accepted wage settlements that tied workers into years of meagre increases.
The AMCU dangled a fat piece of fruit in front of the workers' eyes: rock drillers (who are the core of this strike and do the hardest work underground) earning R4,000 a month were promised R12,500 a month. The union's support in the Lonmin mines shot up to 19% by last month, and it embarked on an illegal strike to force its pay demand.
This week the strike turned violent. On the ground, armed workers are promising to "take a bullet with my fellow workers". Traditional doctors have been anointing strikers with potions, allegedly making them invincible. The AMCU's leaders are preparing for war.
The NUM has lost all credibility and is bleeding members. Its already well-paid secretary, Baleni, was awarded a salary increase of more than 40% last year and his total salary package is just more than R105 000 a month. NUM leaders have refused to get out of police armoured vehicles to address workers. Last year one of them was struck with a brick and lost an eye. They have no cogent plan to end the strike.
The police, too, have lost credibility. Although the indications are that they were shot at, a death count of 34 in three minutes suggests panic, ill-preparedness and fear. A judicial inquiry is likely.
Lonmin saw its chief executive hospitalised with a serious illness two days ago. It is leaderless, then, and has no coherent plan to end the impasse. On Friday it kept a stony silence after days of hapless statements.
This could all have been prevented. Amcu has been organizing at other mines in the region and violence flared at Impala Platinum earlier this year, with several people killed in a manner not dissimilar to this week's events. The police failed to act or gather intelligence to prevent a recurrence.
The AMCU is also organising among poor workers and their shack settlement communities, which have become no-go zones for police. For these settlements, this is a strike against the state and the haves, not just a union matter.
The political leaders now pouring into the area are flying into hostile territory without a plan. Joseph Mathunjwa, an AMCU leader, told workers today: "We're going nowhere. If need be, we're prepared to die."
***
Amandla Editorial Comment
A Brutal tragedy that should never have happened
No event since the end of Apartheid sums up the shallowness of the transformation in this country like the Marikana massacre. What occurred will be debated for years. It is already clear the mineworkers will be blamed for being violent. The mineworkers will be painted as savages. Yet, the fact is that heavily armed police with live ammunition brutally shot and killed over 35 mineworkers. Many more are injured. Some will die of their wounds. Another 10 workers had been killed just prior to this massacre.
This was not the action of rogue cops. This massacre was a result of decisions taken at the top of the police structures. The police had promised to respond with force and came armed with live ammunition. They behaved no better than the Apartheid police when facing the Sharpeville, 1976 Soweto uprisings and 1980s protests where many of our people were killed.
The aggressive and violent response to community service delivery protests by the police have their echo and reverberation in this massacre.
This represents a blood-stain on the new South Africa.
This represents a failure of leadership. It is a failure of leadership from government: its ministers of Labour and Minerals Resources who have been absent during this entire episode; its Minister of Police that maintains this is not political but a mere labour dispute and defends the action of the police; a failure of the President who can only issue platitudes in the face of this crisis and not mobilise the government and its tremendous resources to immediately address the concerns of the mineworkers and now their bereaved family members.
It has been a failure and betrayal of the Lonmin mine management that refused to follow through on undertakings to union leaders to meet the workers and address their grievances. The management summersaults between agreeing to negotiate with workers and then reneges saying they have an existing two-year agreement with National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
It is unfortunately also a failure of the union leadership: In the first instance the NUM which regards any opposition to their leadership as criminal and asserts that such opposition must necessarily be a creation of the Chamber of Mines. This is obviously not true. It is also a failure of the leadership of Association of Mining and Construction Union (AMCU), which acts opportunistically in an effort to recruit disgruntled NUM members, mobilises workers on unrealistic demands and fails to condemn the violence of its members.
The level of violence on our mines demonstrates the deep divisions within and polarisation of South African society. Mineworkers are employed in extreme conditions of poverty, often living in squalor in squatter camps without basic services. The mineworkers are often employed through labour brokers and informalised without decent work conditions.
The "wildcat strike" (like other similar strikes on the mines) that set off the events leading to the slaughter is a response to the structural violence of South Africa’s system of mining. However, it is also a response to something else, which we dare not ignore.
Enriched mineowners with the experience of BEE co-option see an opportunity of driving a wedge between “reasonable” union leaders and the workers. They entice the unions into sweetheart relations dividing them from the worker ranks-and-files. The anger on the mines is a deep-seated anger at mine management that is progressively being directed at the compliance and failure of their union leadership to defend and represent worker interests.
The alienation between union members and the unions’ leadership is a factor behind what has happened at Lonmin and what is happening on other Platinum mines.
Nevertheless, the slaughter of more than 35 mineworkers is as a result of the violence of the state, specifically the police. At the very least Minister Mthethwa must take responsibility and resign.
***
Historic Lonmin faces "perfect storm" after killings
The company already has one of the most pressured balance sheets in the sector and if production remains stalled after the bloodshed its hopes of limiting a shortfall in its 2012 output target and meeting debt-to-earnings commitments may dim further.
"Do yesterday's events change the picture for Lonmin? I do think yes, they do. What we would like to see is obviously the speedy resolution of this conflict and the striking rock drill operators return to work as quickly as possible," said Panmure analyst Alison Turner as investors stayed bearish on the stock.
"I think the kind of violence that you saw yesterday makes that increasingly difficult."
Adding to Lonmin's woes, it announced on Thursday that well regarded chief executive Ian Farmer, a veteran of the group since well before the board ousted the late and controversial Rowland in 1994, was seriously ill in hospital.
"I just couldn't think of any more bad things that could happen to them," said a second industry analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's the perfect storm."
Lonmin shares dropped over eight percent to their lowest in London since 2008 on Friday, before recovering to close down 1.3 percent at 619.4 pence near the close.
DEMAND DOWN, COSTS UP
Like its peers, the world's third biggest platinum miner has struggled with soaring wages and languishing prices, which have been hit by weak demand among car and truck makers, who use the metal in catalytic converters, and for jewellery. Struggles with unions in South Africa, saw Lonmin sack, and then mostly re-hire, 9,000 workers last year after an unsanctioned walk-off.
But violence this week, fuelled by inter-union rivalries, is unprecedented and threatens the miner's already troubled efforts to secure a profitable future by ramping up key shafts and bringing down costs. Even before this week, Lonmin had said it was slashing spending plans to preserve cash.
It has said it is keeping basic services ticking over at Marikana to speed up a return to work, as and when the mine can put behind it Thursday's bloodbath, which plunged South Africa into agonised examination of its post-apartheid economy. But it has also already warned it will miss its full-year output target of 750,000 ounces of platinum and investors are fretting.
The clashes have put what was already one of the most pressured balance sheets in the sector under greater strain, prompting analysts to speculate on an overhaul of its finances, either via debt restructuring or a discounted cash call.
Lonmin has agreements with lenders that require it to keep the ratio of net debt to core profit at no more than four times. That will be tested next month, but is already seen strained.
"Lonmin just doesn't have the balance sheet resilience to sort of cope with a prolonged strike," said another London industry analyst who declined to be named. "We always thought it was going to become strained come the first half of 2013.
"But now there's concern beginning to grow that actually the year ending in September could see a covenant breach."
RIGHTS ISSUE?
Lonmin has an unenviable combination of expensive operations, hefty capital commitments and net debt estimated by analysts at Nomura to hit $400 million at the full year. But raising capital from shareholders may also pose problems.
"Pricing a rights issue on the basis of the long-term attractions of unique assets is extremely tricky, so we have neither added to nor reduced holdings," an executive at one of the company's 15 largest shareholders said. "Xstrata, with their 25 percent stake, must be watching with furrowed brows."
It is unclear that miner Xstrata, which took a $514 million hit over its Lonmin stake at the half-year and is in the throes of a takeover, would back a share sale, analysts said.
The final number of ounces lost and the ultimate impact on Lonmin's balance sheet are still unclear, but analysts say that unlike larger rival Impala - scene of clashes in South Africa earlier this year that forced the closure of the world's largest platinum mine - Lonmin would struggle with a long halt.
Analysts at Credit Suisse estimated a disruption of similar length to Impala's would cost Lonmin more than 100,000 ounces.
That would spell trouble for the company, which traces its roots back a century to the London and Rhodesian Mining Company. It owes much of its present asset base to Roland "Tiny" Rowland, the entrepreneur raised in Germany who courted African leaders and feuded with the British establishment for three decades as he built Lonrho into a diversified conglomerate from the 1960s.
Though a bitter takeover feud in the 1980s with Egyptian-born Mohamed al-Fayed for London's luxury department story Harrods left Lonrho, for once, empty-handed, it still had a global portfolio ranging from hotels and trading to newspapers.
But after Rowland was ousted in a boardroom coup in 1994 it sold off most of its other interests and, a year after Rowland's death, the remaining, mining business was renamed Lonmin.
The boom in catalytic converter use as governments battled to cut exhaust emissions saw the streamlined platinum company flourish. But as demand now slumps, miners strike and debts rise, even Rowland might now feel it has too many enemies.
***
17 August 2012
Lonmin Statement on Marikana Situation
Lonmin Chief Financial Officer, Simon Scott said: “On behalf of the whole Company I would like to
express our sincere condolences to the families and friends of all those employees who have lost
their lives, not only in the events of Thursday but also in the days leading up to it, and of course to
the families and colleagues of the two South African Police Service officers who died trying to
protect others.
“I would like to thank all those Lonmin staff, whether they have been able to get to work or not, for
their dedication and efforts.
“We are committed to supporting all the families that lost loved ones during this tragic week. We
have established a Help Desk at Lonmin’s Andrew Saffy Hospital which will help families with the
identification of bodies, assist with all the burial arrangements and offer bereavement counselling.
“In addition to the Help Desk Services, Lonmin commits to provide funding for the education of all
the children of employees who lost their lives. This funding will cover education costs from primary
school to university.
“Lonmin has for many years worked tirelessly to achieve effective and open labour relations. We
engage with all the unions our employees choose to belong to and whilst, like all companies, we
have had disagreements, we have generally operated in partnership with the unions to the benefit
of the Company and the employees, which is why the illegal strike we’ve seen is so disappointing
and damaging.
“We can also be proud of the work we have done in the communities who live around our mines,
where we have invested hundreds of millions in providing housing, health services, education and
also training to help local people achieve qualifications to get jobs in mining and other industries.
There is much still to be done on and around our property and we are committed to continuing this
effort and investment.
“This last week has dealt those efforts a severe blow. We must start to rebuild those relationships,
starting today, building back trust and trying to move forwards.
“Finally, a stable mining sector is vital to the economic future of this country. If the industry
continues to be damaged by illegal actions it is not just the economy which suffers, but all our
employees, their families and dependents. We need our employees to come back to work and we
need to get mining again.”
- ENDS -
***
ALEC HOGG: We have just got to hand an e-mail from Lonmin. They’ve been pretty scarce as far as it comes to discussing the issues with us directly. Apparently the spokesman, who’s been on top of this until now, Barnard Mokwena, has himself gone in for therapy, so he’s taken a lot of strain out of all of this. But the one point that did come out of the Lonmin statement that I've just been scanning is that Lonmin has committed to provide funding for the education of all the children of the employees who lost their lives. This funding will cover education from primary school to university. Lonmin it says has for many years worked tirelessly to achieve effective and open labour relations.
Well, believe that if you will.
Let’s start off now with a little bit of background. Andrew Levy spoke to us through the week but on Tuesday night he gave us these insights which indeed turned out to be extremely insightful. Let’s hear what Andrew had to say.
ANDREW LEVY: Fundamentally it seems to me that what we have here is something which has spread. It's spread from Impala. It's been brewing for a while and the trigger seems to be the rock-drill operators or the RDOs. Now, the rock-drill operators are something of a labour elite – they are absolutely key to the production process. These are the guys who, as the name suggests, drill the shot holes for the blasting. And they have for some time been arguing for a regrade of their position. And because they are in a very strong bottleneck situation, and nothing happens without them, their bargaining power is great.
Now if the rock-drill operators wanted to stop the mine and they decided that no-one was going to work – that’s where it began. And I think that they are of the view that NUM is doing nothing for them, which is why they have been burning down NUM offices. The fact of the matter is that neither of the two unions is in control. Neither of the two unions is taking any credible stand to deal with this issue. What is even more concerning is that, other than the police presence, government has yet to show its hand and make strong statements.
ALEC HOGG: Well, that was before yesterday’s tragedy, when automatic rifle fire from the South African Police Service killed 34 and injured 78. I'm sure, if you have been in South Africa or been anywhere near Moneyweb, you would have seen the video footage which is rather horrific.
Talking about the two unions involved here, NUM, the National Union of Mineworkers on the one hand – we did speak with the representative on Tuesday night – has been scarce since them.
However, AMCU is the other union that has been blamed by NUM for starting everything. It held a media conference today and Moneyweb’s Eleanor Seggie was there. What exactly went on, Eleanor?
ELEANOR SEGGIE: Well, a visibly emotional and repeatedly upset president, Mathunjwa, broke down in tears in front of the media. He said this wasn’t a turf war between NUM and AMCU. It was rather a worker issue. He went into precise detail, telling us how AMCU tried to engage Lonmin management with feedback from the workers, which was fruitless. And he said the massacre could have been avoided if Lonmin management didn’t renege on its commitment to engage with the unions and the workers on their demands.
ALEC HOGG: So the rock-drill operators that Andrew Levy told us about were paid around R5 000 a month. They wanted apparently R12 500 a month. Not bad – double and-a-half. Were they offered anything? Did you get any feedback on that?
ELEANOR SEGGIE: Well, apparently from speaking to the workers, he said that a NUM representative had told them that a R700 increase was on the table, and the workers wanted to come to an agreement with management to reach R12 500 over a period of time. They realised that it wouldn’t happen overnight, and he was trying to convey this to management but he was having no luck with that.
ALEC HOGG: Well, that’s what the head of AMCU, at whom many are pointing fingers for inciting the crowd, has to say. We go now to Moneyweb’s Malcolm Rees at the mine. Hi, Malcolm. Give us a little bit of feedback. On Tuesday night you were warning there were lots of people on the koppie. That clearly was the rock-drill operators, who had been on strike on an apparently illegal strike. There were all kinds of well-publicised problems yesterday – the massacre, as Eleanor has called it. What happened today?
MALCOLM REES: Well, today, Alec, I've been holed up at the Lonmin convention centre, where this morning the police essentially defended the action, basically arguing self-defence. They showed us some footage of quite an intimidating crowd of strikers, which did seem to indicate that they had attempted to push through a barrier that the police had erected. And after being unable to control them with rubber bullets the argument is that they then opened fire, using live ammunition. They’ve essentially stated that the action was justified and there is some indication that there might be an external investigation into that.
ALEC HOGG: Was there any word from NUM during the course of the day?
MALCOLM REES: Not from where I was, Alec. I've been waiting for President Zuma to come and address the media. He’s actually just arrived … and we are waiting for Zuma.
ALEC HOGG: And has it all settled down, as far as the hostility and violence is concerned?
MALCOLM REES: Well, the police did indicate that that there is still quite a strong level of tension. I’d imagine that would be case. I couldn’t really gauge from where I was, but there was a report today of a shooting that broke out in the hotels – apparently one man was killed.
ALEC HOGG: Was that anything to do with the rock-drill operators and the problems that have gone on for the past week?
MALCOLM REES: At this point it's quite impossible to say. I’d assume that it had something to do with it. The police indicated that they had arrested about 350 of the strikers, of the 2 000 that had amassed on the hill, so we can only assume that the remainder had filtered back into the … townships, and obviously that is going to create a lot of tension in the area. I’d imagine that is has to do with that.
ALEC HOGG: Do you have any update on how many people have passed on?
MALCOLM REES: Yes, the official figure is 34 in yesterday’s violence, which brings the total figure to 44. …
ALEC HOGG: Piet Matosa from the National Union of Mineworkers joins us now. Good to have you on the programme, Mr Matosa. Once again AMCU today had a press conference, making all kinds of allegations as it did earlier in the week when we spoke to you on Tuesday. Having digested what's happened over this period of time, what are the lessons that NUM has learnt?
PIET MATOSA: Well, good evening to you and the listeners. What we have learnt is that telling people lies is something terrible for …people things that cannot be delivered is something very wrong, and now that there are 34 people that have died, I think people will come to their senses and provide the necessary and expected leadership instead of going around saying things that are not existing, instead of going around promising people things that cannot be delivered.
ALEC HOGG: When we spoke on Tuesday night, 10 people had already died. Another 34 died yesterday. On Tuesday I asked you what you were doing about instilling discipline in your members. Was there anything you could have done, in your opinion, to have saved some of those lives?
PIET MATOSA: Remember, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers went on top of that mountain to talk to those people. Unfortunately he couldn’t talk to them because they wanted to come out of the…and they had demands that they must come…and then the security had to come in to say there was an agreement that there should be a certain distance between the president and those mineworkers who were on strike. But on top of that, remember, I also said that we had meetings, we are planning meetings to talk to our members before the end of this week or this weekend. Still the regional leadership and the branch leadership are organising meetings to talk to our members. Unfortunately now we cannot say that our members were involved in this violence because some people are saying they’ve been forced to go on top of the mountain.
ALEC HOGG: We've all seen the video footage – what do you make of it? Were the strikers rushing at the police? Were the police justified in opening fire?
PIET MATOSA: Well, I've never been a policeman, firstly. I don’t know when to fire. But what I know is that police have to maintain law and order. I only saw that on my TV as well that there was exchange of gunshots between the people who were on the mountain and the policemen.
ALEC HOGG: Piet Matosa, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers.
Let’s pick up with Peter Major now from Cadiz. Peter, this has had a significant impact on the value of the Lonmin shares. It's also had an influence on the price of platinum, as we heard earlier from Wayne McCurrie. What's your reading? Have either of those been overdone?
PETER MAJOR: Ja, I think they’ve all been overdone. A month ago we heard there were 800 000 extra ounces of platinum floating around, so if a mine loses 15 000 ounces in a week you still have 785 000 ounces overhang. So ja, it's definitely a speculative move that platinum went up $60 in a day-and-a-half.
ALEC HOGG: So hard-nosed investors – how were they reacting to this?
PETER MAJOR: I think the real hard-nosed investors went in and bought about 1.5m Lonmin shares today. It opened up about 5 or 6% down, it looked like to me, and it closed down less than 0.5%. So Lonmin did much better than the market today. I think it's fallen too far and people are looking what's the scrap value of this company, what's just the ore in the ground worth. Regardless of how long this violence continues the share price is not reflecting nearly what the NAV of the company is.
ALEC HOGG: Peter, the management activity here, or the management actions of Lonmin have been little short of pathetic. They have been keeping a low profile. They certainly were unable to nip any of this in the bud, and now we have a national tragedy that’ll live on in South Africa’s history. If they are such bad managers in labour relations, why can we trust them to run a mine decently?
PETER MAJOR: Look, I'd be kind of slow pointing at Lonmin when their CEO is in very serious condition in hospital in London. And my information is Amplats had a similar strike by rock-drill operators not even a week ago. They did manage to contain it, but we know that Impala had a very messy situation with rock-drill operators five, six months ago. So this is an issue that’s going from mine to mine. Was it Lonmin that’s responsible for all these deaths? I don’t know. They maybe reacted too weakly. But gee, I don’t know what I would have done in their shoes. I think there’s a lot of scared people there – and who really wants to negotiate if they are carrying weapons? I don’t want to negotiate with anybody carrying weapons.
ALEC HOGG: Peter Major from Cadiz. Clive Simpkins is our go-to man on communication strategy. Clive, perhaps you disagree with me, but the communications employed in this crisis situation from Lonmin seem to leave a lot to be desired.
CLIVE SIMPKINS: Alec, you know, the very first thing that goes through my mind is that they were really caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, because where you have a faction union like AMCU trying to sabre-rattle and establish its credentials and leach membership from NUM, my concern is that Lonmin really may have become caught between some very Machiavellian manipulation on the part of the two unions, because it would be in NUM’s interest if you looked at it to stand back and say, “Well, all right, AMCU, let’s see what you do then” and let this whole thing turn into a conflagration so we can say “you see what happens when you can't control the people”.
On the other hand, and I've seen this time and time again, and we had the same discussion when there was the Woolworths-Frankie’s issue, and that is that the corporate lawyers get involved very, very quickly and typically prevent the management making reasonable, coherent and timeous statements.
And in this case, for example, regardless of the fact that the PR person may be in therapy and the CEO is in hospital, you can have a magnificent crisis-containment strategy and a reputation strategy in place but, if the lawyers say you can't go and make any comment on this because we have to work on what the implications might be from a lawsuit and perspective, they are really shackled in the process. Having said that, it would appear that there was no plan B, because in any organisation you surely would have to have a contingency setup which says if something happened to the CEO and the head of PR, who were flying in an aircraft and got killed, who would be the spokesperson, what would we do? And there does seem to have been a failure on that front.
ALEC HOGG: The question seems to be the first deaths happened last Friday, and Tuesday again there were further deaths. Only on Thursday did we have the massacre that we all remember. It does appear that they had plenty of time to address this properly.
CLIVE SIMPKINS: I suppose the difficulty is if it's something to do directly with your workers, then I would go and drag in that extremely able person by the name of Andrew Levy that you chatted to a little earlier, or a Gavin Brown of the world, because they certainly seem very capable of bringing warring factions to the table.
But if – and this is just speculation – it is actually a turf war between the National Union of Mineworkers and this attempted fledgling new kid on the block, AMCU, then I believe that Lonmin are in an incredibly invidious position because there’s not an awful lot you can do. And regretfully the fallout is now laid fairly and squarely at their door.
ALEC HOGG: Clive Simpkins, communication strategist.
ALEC HOGG: Well, the human side of all of this is equally tragic. Gerrie Pretorius from Life Counsel joins us now. Gerrie, thanks for your contribution to our programme this evening. We must not forget there were people who witnessed this, people who were involved in this, there are families involved here. What does one do as a psychologist – or what are the impacts likely trauma-wise on those individuals?
GERRIE PRETORIUS: Good evening, Alec. Let me first of all say this is a very sensitive situation, and we all witnessed it on television. First, I can just tell you that psychologically, emotionally, all these people involved in those incidents family-wise are in a bit of a not good situation at this moment. It is very important that they would understand and that they get professional help or at least just talk to someone. Both of these people don’t even have the opportunity to talk to anyone or to a professional, and psychologically, emotionally, it's draining. For them to lose their loved ones, families, it is not a good situation to be in.
ALEC HOGG: So if you were advising Lonmin, would you tell them to fly in dozens of psychologists to start helping people come to terms with it?
GERRIE PRETORIUS: No, I don’t think you have to fly – I think social workers, even if they can understand a little bit more of what is going on, so they can just get a little bit of help – they just need a guideline of how to react, to know what it is to be in a traumatic situation. Most of these people don’t know what it is to be in a traumatic situation, they don’t know how to deal with these situations. But we just need someone to maybe guide them as to “these are the emotions that you will go through, this is what we can do for you, it is OK to think like that, it's OK to have these emotions” – and they need to know how to deal with themselves, otherwise they end up in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and it leads to further and further bad things for them health-wise.
ALEC HOGG: What about the impact on the national psyche? We've all seen this and I think most of us are terribly ashamed of what’s happened to our country in this instance.
GERRIE PRETORIUS: Nationally I just think we need to be aware, we need to be on the lookout, look at what is happening around us, start to sense a situation. People need to be aware of what's going on around us, need to look out. That's why I think be sensitive, look out.
ALEC HOGG: Gerrie Pretorius is a psychologist.
Well, the image of this country has taken a knock in all of this, Wayne. Have the foreigners been selling our shares?
WAYNE McCURRIE: They are indeed sellers. They are selling the retailers, specifically also selling Bidvest, and a couple of other shares and MTN – but the retailers they are selling specifically. And it's not helped by two factors.
The latest retail results that have just come out – Truworths and Clicks – are disappointing the share price. I'm not saying they are bad results, but they are probably not as good as what the share price is anticipating.
And the second thing is obviously the shares themselves are expensive, and this whole violence. So they are strong, strong sellers.
ALEC HOGG: So we cannot underestimate the international impact of an incident like this?
WAYNE McCURRIE: No, you can't.
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