Investors fret as SA strikes spread

tools, concern is growing about the long-term impact on South Africa’s economy.
Investors warned that a failure to solve the impasse would have a severe impact on the mining sector in particular, which accounts for a fifth of the country’s GDP.
The illegal action combined with “uncertainties about the future of labour law in South Africa, compounded with the impact of uncertainty on mineral rights in South Africa, is quite a toxic combination,” he said.
With 24 000 miners on strike at Gold Fields mines, around 20 000 at Anglo American Platinum and at least 17 500 at AngloGold Ashanti, firms have seen production slashed, while being left with weakened union interlocutors.
Strikes for higher wages spread from platinum to gold, chrome and coal industries after workers downed tools at the Lonmin platinum mine on August 10.
Management agreed to up to 22 percent wage hikes after 46 people died — including 34 shot dead by police in one day — at the mine after weeks of violence. Now workers at other mines are demanding similar increases. — AFP.