Lonmin to fund children of dead workers

Johannesburg - Lonmin will fund the education of children whose parents died in the Marikana mine in North West, the company announced on Friday.

Lonmin CFO Simon Scott said the company had established a help desk at the Andrew Saffy Hospital to help with identification of bodies and burial arrangements.

"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," said Scott in a statement.

"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," said Scott.

Earlier, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega told reporters that the shooting that erupted on Thursday left 34 people dead and at least 78 injured.

Phiyega said the protesters stormed towards the police, firing shots, and "police had to protect themselves".

Another 10 people, including police officers and security guards, had by that time been killed in violent protests the past week.

A total of 259 people were arrested and six firearms recovered.

The protests were believed to be linked to rivalry between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) over recognition agreements at the mine. Workers also wanted higher wages.

Meanwhil,e Shanduka Group said it was deeply shocked by the tragedy at the world's third biggest platinum producer.

"In the wake of this national tragedy, it is critical that all parties take meaningful steps to ensure that nothing of this nature ever happens again," the group said.

Business Unity SA (Busa) also added its voice on the condolences:

"It is extremely regrettable that apparent failures on the labour relations front and security concerns have escalated into violence and have resulted in this tragic loss of human life."