By Agencies

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Striking workers at South Africa's Lonmin platinum mine say they will return to work on Thursday after accepting a pay rise of 22 per cent.

The planned return to work, announced on Tuesday, will end more than five weeks of crippling and bloody industrial action that left at least 34 miners dead in a police crackdown last month.

Workers gathered at a football pitch near the Marikana mine cheered when they were informed of the pay offer, the Reuters news ageny reported.

"The actual increase is about 22 per cent, which is very high," said Bishop Jo Seoka, South African Council of Churches president who brokered the talks between the miners and their employer.

The wage strike, which started on August 10 and spread to other platinum and gold mines in the country, triggered growing concerns that the industrial action would dent the economy of Africa's wealthiest country.

Lost output

Labour unrest in South Africa's gold and platinum mining sectors this year has cost the industry $548m in lost output, Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, said on Monday.

Zuma blamed poor living and working conditions of miners on the apartheid past and the failures of mining companies to honour a charter to improve the lives of miners.

He also said that heavy-handed police tactics on striking miners should not prevent the miners' right to protest.

"Government deployed law-enforcement agencies to stabilise the situation," he said.

"This does not take away the rights of miners and residents to protest peacefully and unarmed as provided for, in the laws of the land. The agencies have been told to be firm but to respect the rights of residents and strikers."

Zuma told reporters on Tuesday after an EU-South Africa summit meeting in Brussels that he understood why the violence could worry international investors but insisted his country remained a "destination for investment".

"I believe that the manner in which we have swiftly attended to the situation, and we are now in full control - that must give comfort to investors," he said.

The violence has left at least 45 people dead most of them striking miners. Unrest deepened last month when police called in to end a strike at Marikana opened fire on the miners, killing 34.

Prior to that incident, 10 people, including police officers, had been killed at the same mine. Police said they shot the miners in self-defence.

The government has apologised for the violence and instituted a commission of inquiry that is expected to unveil its finding next January.