"Let us go back," he told a group at Freedom Park. But they responded by shouting they were not prepared to do so.

Vavi said a meeting had been set for today between Cosatu and Implats to discuss the strike in which the federation would argue that all dismissed workers be reinstated with the same benefits they enjoyed before the strike.

"It will not help for us to go back one by one. Let us all go back to work, and allow negotiations to continue."

The workers have been on an unprotected strike for five weeks. On Tuesday, they vowed not to return to work unless they were paid R9000 a month after deductions.

Earlier, armed police and security guards kept watch in and outside the No8 hostel, where Vavi was to speak. Access to a VIP area was strictly controlled.

Barbed wire had been set up between the stage and the area where workers had gathered.

They sang while filing into the sports ground at the hostel.

"Sifuna R9000 [We want R9000]," they sang.

The mine fired 17000 workers after they refused to return to work. The National Union of Mineworkers negotiated with Implats to re-employ them, but the majority refused to return unless their demands were met.

Also yesterday, Vavi questioned his own lifestyle at Numsa's national political commission in Johannesburg.

Indicating the silver Audi A7 TDI, in which he had arrived at the meeting, he said: "Look at that car outside. Look at the laptops and the iPads when we go to parliament and look at what we are wearing.

"Check where we are staying. And then look at the conditions of the working-class South Africans of today. Look at the taxis they ride in ... how they stand eight hours in a queue at a hospital for a Panado."