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)
