South Africa’s gold sector in standby as wave of strikes hits the country

South Africa, Africa’s largest economy, is being hit by a fresh wave of strikes affecting the car, construction and airport sector, as the country still struggles to recover from last year’s labour unrest.

About 335,000 people may get involved in ongoing and future strikes over higher wages, according to Bloomberg, especially as the country’s main mining union gets ready to ask its gold miners members to down tools this Friday.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which represents 64% of the country’s mine workers, has given bullion producers an ultimatum to accept its demand for pay increase of up to 60% by Friday or face labour action.

The government has called on the workers to ensure all strikes are peaceful, as labour disputes last year claimed up to 50 lives at South Africa’s platinum mines.

Image: Screenshot from Euronews

 

 

2 Comments