AS IT HAPPENED: Lonmin exec: No time to consider increases

Da Costa disagrees with Lonmin security evidence that strikers were "faceless".

He says he thinks "faceless" means Lonmin wasn't sure which union was representing the miners.

The commission resumes.

Da Costa is still being questioned by Semenya. 

Semenya asks da Costa if the demand (that management go to the koppie) could not be met by police.

Da Costa says it wasn't expected of the police to end the strike. Only to deal with the unlawfulness.

Police must stop the murders of people linked to the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, commission chairperson retired Judge Ian Farlam said in Pretoria on Wednesday.

"There are quite a number of deaths already in the Marikana saga. I would ask the police to redouble their efforts to ensure violence of this kind is not allowed to continue," he said at the inquiry's public hearings in Pretoria.

"Certainly it's a matter of grave concern to us all, not just the commission, but I am sure the whole country."Bongani "Bhayi" Mehlonkomo was shot dead in Marikana in North West on Tuesday evening.

The executive says it didn't make sense to send an executive to address strikers in a nyala.

And with that they break for lunch.

Da Costa says before they had time to consider increases, the unprotected strike happened.

He says the wage increases by Impala put "a bit" of pressure on Lonmin.

Mpofu says if Lonmin had been more flexible on labour issues, deaths might not have happened.

Lonmin legal counsel Schalk Burger says it's irrelevant to ask a lay witness about what caused Marikana deaths.

Da Costa tells Mpofu he knew Impala had spoken to workers directly.

The Lonmin exec says the fact that there had been wage adjustments at other companies affected Lonmin's decisions.

Mpofu asks Da Costa if he spoke to mineworkers to avoid unprotected strike, why didn't he speak to them after they went on strike.

Da Costa says Lonmin's decision was not to engage with the mineworkers as they didn't want to talk to people on an unprotected strike.

Da Costa says when the miners approached him it was after hours when their work shift had been completed.

But on 10 August, the mineworkers refused to go to work and Lonmin felt the wage issue had already been concluded.

Mpofu said that these differences are insignificant. Da Costa disagrees, tweets reporter Gabi Falanga.

Michael da Costa has now been sworn in. He's being cross-examined by Adv Heidi Barnes for Amcu.

Da Costa was the vice president of Lonmin's Karee shaft at the time of the 2012 strike

Mpofu has confirmed that it was Bongani "Bhayi" Mehlonkomo who was gunned down on his way home from work yesterday evening.

He says the circumstances of Bhayi's death are still unclear.

The commission will start a little later after Tuesday's news that a man named by Mr X was killed.

The man, known as "Bhayi" was an Amcu Rowland shaft secretary.

A man accused by a police witness, Mr X, of being one of the people who killed a Lonmin security guard has been murdered.

Proceedings were postponed on Tuesday (yesterday) after Mr X fell ill, Sapa reports.

Mr X, who cannot be identified to protect his identity, had been testifying via video link from an undisclosed location. He says he fears for his life and is under police witness protection.

He claims he was part of a group of striking Lonmin mineworkers at Marikana, near Rustenburg, North West, who participated in the killing of Lonmin security guards Hassan Fundi and Frans Mabelani on 12 August 2012.

Lonmin executive Michael da Costa is expected to give evidence at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry in Pretoria on Wednesday, Sapa reports.

In June he told the commission that Lonmin had "fallen behind" Impala Platinum in the wages paid to rock drillers in the months leading up to a violent confrontation at Marikana in 2012.

In June 2012, about 300 miners approached Da Costa, who was manager of Lonmin's Karee mine, and their representatives told him they wanted a basic salary of R12 500 for Karee’s rock drill operators.

"I pointed out that the increase was extremely high and unaffordable. They thought it was the number that would reward them for the work they do. They said it was a good number," Da Costa said at the time.