While the deaths at Marikana were the main focus of the Farlam Commission, it also considered the context in which the events of August 2012 occurred, and specifically the horrendous housing situation and living conditions for mine workers at Marikana. Thousands of Lonmin employees were living in squalid conditions in informal settlements around the mine. Lonmin was well aware of the situation and had, under its 2006 Social and Labour Plan (SLP), committed to construct 5,500 houses for workers by 2011. By 2012 it had built just three.