South African police said they used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse 3,000 “violent” striking miners in the restive platinum belt near Marikana, where 34 workers were shot dead in 2012.

Striking South African platinum miners stayed off the job yesterday and marched to press wage demands at major producer Lonmin as 15,000 workers at the world’s fourth biggest bullion producer, Gold Fields, also downed tools.

Industrial action has spread in South Africa with a wildcat strike by 15,000 gold miners, while few workers reported for duty at in the fourth week of a stoppage at a platinum mine.

A quarter of the workforce returned to the Marikana platinum mine yesterday where 44 men were killed last week in clashes that evoked memories of apartheid-era violence.