Wireless News
03-20-2014, 08:00 AM
By Ed Stoddard RUSTENBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - As South Africa's biggest post-apartheid mine strike marks its eighth week on Thursday, it is already denting growth and export earnings, and many of those affected are having to sell their most prized possessions to make ends meet. In an informal bar near the platinum belt city of Rustenburg, striking miner Oupa Majodina holds up his cell phone to show a photo of his pride and joy: his cattle. No talks are scheduled between the two sides to the strike, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the world's top platinum producers, Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin, and they remain poles apart on the issue of wages. That means the misery will only spread, making an even bigger headache for President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress on the run-in to May 7 general elections.
More... (http://news.yahoo.com/mine-strike-hits-micro-macro-african-economy-114738178.html)
More... (http://news.yahoo.com/mine-strike-hits-micro-macro-african-economy-114738178.html)