Legal action could be taken next week to force President Jacob Zuma to release the Farlam Commission of Inquiry’s report, lawyer Dali Mpofu said on Tuesday.

“Next week there is likely to be some litigation or a court case about the release of the report, which I’m going to be involved in,” he said at the release of a report on Lonmin’s ability to pay the salaries that its rock drill operators demanded in 2012.

Mpofu represented the miners wounded and arrested during the August 2012 violence at Lonmin’s mine in Marikana, North West, at the Farlam Commission of Inquiry.

“The real story, before any policeman shot any gun, is could this have been avoided by meeting the demands of the workers?” he asked.

He was speaking at the release of a report by Alternative Information Development Centre economist, Dick Forslund, entitled ‘The Bermuda Connection: Profit shifting, inequality and unaffordability at Lonmin 1999-2012’.

Forslund argues tah Lonmin could easily have afforded to pay its rock drill operators the R12 500 monthly salary they demanded in their 2012 strike. Mpofu ascribed the violence at Marikana to a variety of factors, including the migrant labour system, and the economy.

“The Marikana massacre is a symbol of our history, of the… centrality of the mining industry in shaping the economy.”

President Jacob Zuma said in Parliament that he would release the report before the end of June. News24