<P> In 2007 the South African National Union of Mineworkers, which represents the nation's mineworkers, engaged in a series of talks with the Chamber of Mines, an industry group . The meetings also saw the participation of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, a body with mediation authority over the dispute . On 27 November 2007, the National Union of Mineworkers announced that South African mineworkers would go on strike to protest at unsafe working conditions . The strike took place on 4 December, and impacted over 240,000 workers at 60 sites across the country, including mines devoted to the production of gold, platinum, and coal . </P> <P> The Lonmin strike was a strike in August 2012 in the Marikana area, close to Rustenburg, South Africa at a mine owned by Lonmin one of the world's largest primary producers of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs). A series of violent confrontations occurred between platinum mine workers on strike and the South African Police Service on Thursday, 16 August 2012, and resulted in the deaths of 34 individuals (30 were miners and 4 protestors), as well as the injury of an additional 78 miners . Occurring in the post-apartheid era, it was the deadliest incident of violence between police and the civilian population in South Africa since the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and prompted the South African President, To investigate the matter, Jacob Zuma appointed Gordon Farlam as a chairperson of a committee, under the probe Mr. Ramaphosa also examined and testified for the lobbying with the Lonmin and SAPS, he accepted to the commission that massacre could have been avoided if precautionary actions have been taken place . </P> <P> Jacob Zuma declares a 66 - daylong week of mourning . </P> <P> In 2014, Platinum industry workers went on a strike that lasted five months . It was the longest strike in the history of South African mining . </P>

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