Go dashes hopes of ending five weeks of industrial action which could be ‘extremely damaging’ to nation’s economyStrikers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine rejected a pay offer on Friday, dashing hopes of ending five weeks of industrial action that has swept through South Africa’s platinum sector and laid bare the ability struggle in the ruling ANC.Workers at the mine, where police shot dead 34 protesters at the end month, dismissed the offer as path below the 12,500 rand (£925) a month sought by members of the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).”We are not interested,” striker Molifi Phele said as hundreds of stick-waving demonstrators chanted and danced encircling him on the sun-bleached grass in the heart of the “platinum belt”, 100km north-west of Johannesburg.”What he is offering cannot acquire you anything. All we desire is 12,500.”The killings at Marikana on 16 August have poisoned industrial relations across the sector and could be “extremely damaging” to the economy, finance minister Pravin Gordhan said in a shift of tone from at the end week.The rand fell 3% on Wednesday as the unrest engulfed Anglo American Platinum, the earth’s largest producer, and ripples have reached the bond market amid concerns Pretoria might resort to throwing money at the difficulty.”Things could get really hideous,” said Manik Narain, an emerging market strategist at UBS in London. “There is a risk the administration will respond to the unrest with fiscal stimulus, which will not go down well with rating agencies.”On Friday police fired teargas and stun grenades to disperse another collection of striking miners at an Aquarius Platinum plant in the area.Aquarius said it had closed the mine as a precaution. Global miner Xstrata did the same at a nearby chrome plant.LonminMiningSouth AfricaAfricaguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
DOWNLOAD: Black Mesa