Barrick Gold Inc (GOLD)

[NYBob]

SA strikes spread beyond mines

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/1005/1224324907271.html

TOYOTA HAS said it had been forced to shut its South African car factory
for four days because of an illegal pay strike, the first sign
of wildcat mine stoppages spreading into other parts of
Africa’s biggest economy.

Union leaders at the Japanese car giant’s Durban plant said
workers were due to return today after winning a 5.4 per cent
pay rise inspired in part by a hefty increase won last month
by strikers at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine.

“The circumstances are not the same as what is happening in
the mines,” said Mbuso Ngubane of the National Union of
Metalworkers of South Africa, “but it does send a message.
It does have an impact to some extent on other workers getting
agitated.”

After two months of unrest, at least 75,000 miners,
or 15 per cent of the sector’s workforce,
are on strike,
burdening already sluggish growth only three months before
an internal leadership vote in the ruling
African National Congress.

President Jacob Zuma is favourite to win re-election, teeing him
up for a second five-year term as South African president in
2014, but the turbulence strengthens the hand of those who say
he is unfit to run an emerging economy.

Kumba Iron Ore, a world top 10 producer, said yesterday it had
suspended production at its huge Sishen mine after striking
employees blocked access to the pit.

Wildcat industrial action at the world’s top platinum producer
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) also spread from its four
mines near Rustenburg, 120km from Johannesburg, to three mines
100km farther north, a union said. – (Reuters)