Striking miners chant slogans outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, August 15, 2012. Thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks faced off with South African police on Wednesday at Lonmin’s Marikana mine after it halted production following the deaths of 10 people in fighting between rival unions. Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, has threatened to sack 3,000 rock drill operators if they fail to end a wildcat pay strike that started on Friday at its flagship mine Marikana. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko (SOUTH AFRICA – Tags: CIVIL UNREST BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT)
Image by: SIPHIWE SIBEKO / REUTERS

Lonmin workers linked to Amcu are not safe, the trade union’s leader told workers and residents in Marikana on Monday.

“We are not safe. Our phones have been tapped,” the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union president Joseph Mathenjwa told a crowd in the Wonderkop informal settlement at the Lonmin platinum mine.

“We have been democratically colonised – workers work under very harsh conditions.”

On Thursday, 34 people were killed when the police opened fire on strikers, some of them armed, when trying to disperse them after a week of violent protests.

Another 10 people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in violence at the mine in the week before. The police ministry said 78 people were injured and 259 arrested during Thursday’s shooting.

Mathenjwa accused the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Lonmin of trying to get the striking workers fired.

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