The stand-off is thought to have taken place between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) - allied to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party - and the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).
My last interview with him was in February 2012 at a rally in Birmingham to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gates, when as an up-and-coming NUM activist he organised the flying pickets which succeeded in closing the Saltley coke depot, forcing the then Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath to concede a 27% pay increase.