Pretoria - Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa offered to call off the August 2012 strike in exchange for a seat on the Lonmin negotiation table, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.
Former Lonmin chief operating officer Mahomed Ismail Seedat narrated his involvement on August 16, hours before 34 protesting miners were killed in a confrontation with police.
“As I stepped into the Lonmin main administration building, Joseph immediately recognised me. We had met previously when I was at BHP Billiton,” said Seedat at the inquiry in Pretoria.
Seedat said he explained to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union leader that as a former Lonmin executive, he had been requested to assist temporarily during the violent wage-related protest.
“We were talking a bit loudly and because there was a press briefing of the police going on, somebody asked us to be quiet. We then moved to a corridor that leads from the reception area.
“In the conversation, he said words to the effect that 'give me a place at the bargaining table and I will get the workers off the koppie'. I told him that as a non-executive director, I couldn't make such decisions,” said Seedat.
Mathunjwa took his cellphone numbers and he took down the union leader's numbers.
Seedat conveyed Mathunjwa's demands to the Lonmin management, who were also in the building.
Seedat was chief operating officer from September 2007 to December 2010. He became a non-executive member of the Lonmin board from January 2011.
He said he was requested by Lonmin board chairman, Roger Phillimore, to assist in efforts to end the “volatile and violent strike”.
The commission, chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the deaths of 44 people during unrest near Lonmin's Marikana mine.
Police opened fire on a group of mostly striking mineworkers, killing 34 of them on August 16, 2012. Around 70 people were injured and more than 200 were arrested. Police claimed they were trying to disperse and disarm them.
Ten people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the preceding week.
Schalk Burger, SC, for Lonmin, asked Jamieson to explain why the mine management team was not willing to approach the workers on the koppie to address them.
Jamieson responded: “I think it was the absolutely right decision, not sending anyone to the koppie. The police, who were supposed to protect us, were being killed. If we were to go and say 'I'm sorry we can't give you the R12 500', how would the workers react?
“I remember one of the managers said 'I will go up if it's the right thing to do'. His wife told him 'I will divorce you if you go'.
If management had attempted to address the 3000-odd workers prior to August 16, 2012, “somebody could have been hurt badly”.
Seedat said both Amcu and the National Union of Mineworkers urged Lonmin not to negotiate directly with the protesters gathered at the Marikana koppie, because it would encourage “anarchy”.
Seedat will resume his testimony next week.
On Friday, Lonmin human resources boss Barnard Mokwena will be on the stand.
Sapa