South African President Jacob Zuma met yesterday with disgruntled miners at the Lonmin facility where 44 people have died in a wildcat strike, as tensions rippled to nearby shafts.

The visit was his second since police gunned down 34 armed miners one week ago, in a crackdown on the violent strike that had earlier left 10 people dead in inter-union attacks.

“This is painful to all of us. It is not acceptable for people to die where talks can be held,” Mr Zuma told about 2,000 workers, speaking to them in a field while an aide held an umbrella over him.

“But I do feel your pain and have come personally to express that. I am certain that the commission of inquiry will get to the bottom of what happened here.”

Mr Zuma has announced a judicial commission to investigate the police shoot-out, which shocked South Africa in the deadliest day of protest since apartheid.

Police are undertaking their own investigation, while the independent police watchdog is also probing the police conduct.

That’s done little to soothe the tempers among the 3,000 workers, mainly rock drill operators, who launched an illegal strike on August 10 at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana to demand higher wages of 12,500 rand (€1,200) a month.

Yesterday, similar demands were being pressed at the nearby Royal Bafokeng Platinum Mine, where 600 rock drillers downed tools.

Anglo American Platinum, the world’s top producer, also received a list of demands from its workers in Marikana but declined to comment.