Tensions rose in mines across South Africa on Wednesday with outbreaks of violence and new wildcat strikes being reported.
Thousands of striking workers at Gold Fields KDC West Mine, in Carletonville, gathered with sticks, pipes and axes on a hill outside the mine property on Wednesday afternoon.
At one stage the miners received a notice which they thought was an eviction order.
However, Gold Fields' spokesman Sven Lunsche said an application for an eviction order had yet to be processed by the High Court in Pretoria.
What the workers had was a sheriff's notice requesting reasons why they should not be evicted.
Lunsche said the mine wanted the 5000 miners living in hostels evicted because of safety concerns.
Hostels were becoming a "hot-bed of violence" where petrol bombs were being made and plans for illegal action being drawn up.
"If the miners go back to the hostels, they can stay there. We don't have the legal power [to evict them]."
However, some miners on the hill, who began streaming down towards the hostel after getting the notice, were not sure they would return to the hostels.
"We want to wait until Vavi comes, I don't think we are going to go back to the hostels. We will go back to the mountains," said striking miner Mveliso Kete.
Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi would address the workers on the hill on Wednesday afternoon, said Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven.
Mineworker Siabonga Kilibone, who was protesting on the hill, said the Gold Fields gathering was "Marikana Two".
In August, 34 miners were killed and 78 were wounded when police opened fire on protesters near Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana.
Striking workers there had also used a hill as a gathering point.
Kilibone said President Jacob Zuma should come to the mine.
"We want Zuma to come here and to see us mineworkers. We want him to know and see our living conditions," he said.
Other miners held up posters reading: "R12,500 or voetsek".
Meanwhile, a security guard was hacked to death at Petmin's Somkhele mine, near Mtubatuba, where an illegal strike began last week.
Captain Jabulani Mdletshe said the guard was hacked to death by five men carrying bush knives. They had earlier confronted another guard for working during the strike.
Also on Wednesday, Harmony Gold said most of the 5400 workers at its Kusasalethu mine, on the West Rand, had embarked on an illegal strike.
Bokoni Platinum Mines in Limpopo and Gold One's Cooke Four Shaft in Ezulwini, also on the West Rand, both interdicted their workers, who embarked on illegal strikes on Monday.
All non-essential operations at the mines were at a standstill.
Peripheral violence was reported by police in the North West.
Two shops were burnt down and several cars damaged and burnt near Jabula Hostel in Boitekong, near Rustenburg.
Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said a group of mineworkers on strike at Anglo Platinum had gathered in the areas where the crimes took place.
In the Delela informal settlement in Rustenburg, two people were arrested after a shop and a mine lapa were set alight on Tuesday night.
A crowd of about 500 people barricaded the streets with burning tyres and pelted police vehicles with stones, apparently in protest against mines in the area not employing local residents.
The judicial commission of inquiry into the shootings at Lonmin's Marikana mine postponed its work on Wednesday until October 22.
In Johannesburg, a meeting on wage structures was underway between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity, UASA and the Chamber of Mines.
The Chamber's senior executive Vusi Mabena said the unions wanted wage negotiations -- which are meant to take place around April or May next year -- to be brought forward.
On Friday, independent facilitators would conduct an investigation with platinum mines and the Chamber into the possibility of centralised wage negotiations in the sector.
Previously, platinum mines had not worked within the Chamber's framework.
Police said about 8000 Cosatu and NUM members marched to deliver a memorandum to their employers in Orkney.
The march was completely peaceful, said Captain Amanda Fumani.
Sapa
