JOHANNESBURG (AP) — President Jacob Zuma says striking miners have cost South Africa close to 4.5 billion rand (nearly $563 million) in lost gold and platinum production this year.

Zuma told a conference of the Congress of South African Trade Unions that this year's strikes have subtracted nearly 3.1 billion rand ($388 million) from the national treasury.

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

Zuma said mining companies are required to improve the housing and living conditions of workers and also to invest in skills development, racial equity in employment and ownership as well as local community development.

He said violence cannot become a culture of South African labor relations.