The situation at the Lonmin mine in Marikana is tense on Friday morning due to ongoing protests by residents demanding that the company create 1000 jobs for the unemployed youth.
The protest, organised by a group calling themselves the "Unemployed youth of Bapo Ba Mogale", started last week.
The E2 and E3 sections were closed and about 2,000 staff members were sent home for safety reasons, when protesting community members allegedly began intimidating them.
Lonmin made international headlines in 2012 when 34 miners were killed during a strike over wages.
It’s fairly quiet here this morning but police are maintaining a presence in the area, saying there’s been no agreement reached yet between protesting community members and mine management.
The police’s Mpeile Talane says: “Eighteen-hour time when the situation becomes tense in most cases, so we make sure that at a particular area that we fortify or intensify our security at the area.”
Lonmin spokesperson Wendy Tlou says community members reacted by torching a bus after negotiations reached a deadlock.
“But also what’s disappointing is that it creates this fear in the community and has not only affected people working at the mine but people working in and around other businesses around the greater Lonmin communities.”
Last week, a truck was also set alight in the area
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