STRIKE COULD HIT ECONOMY S.A ECONOMY REAL HARD

(the economy hits five...www.tribune.com.pk)

Labour unrest in the mining industry is extremely damaging the South African economy reveals finance minister Pravin Gordhan. On Friday Marikana miners rejected a wage increase of R986, the increase offered by lornmin is however very far form what the miners demanded. The increase would have seen entry-level workers earning the a salary of R5 586 per month.Striking miners say the R986 increase is part of an existing 3-year wage agreement that will be implemented in October.

Baleni said the latest offer was far from the workers' demands and he was unsure of how rival union, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), would respond.

"It will depend if they are really pragmatic and willing to look at the interests of those workers, as well as the interests of our economy. We hope every player in these negotiations will take that into account," Baleni told the BBC.

Meanwhile mineworkers are taking action in convincing other mine workers not to report for duty and most of them are worried because management is not meeting their demands and that the process is taking long.

On Friday Gold Filed stossed a pile of pamphlets out of a moving bakkie at its KDC west, telling striking mine workers how much money they had lost for being on strike so far this week. The strike has been going on for more than four weeks. Other people that have been interviewed said mine security had visited their hostels on Thursday evening and told them to go back to work, but were promptly chased away.

(president jacob zuma breaks the silance...www.skillsunivers.com)

ZUMA BREAKES THE SILANCE...
President Jacob Zuma warned on Thursday that his government will act on the growing mining unrest hitting the platinum and gold sectors, which he said was "not acceptable".

Zuma's first offical comment since the labour troubles spread to global giant Anglo Platinum was that he has engaged with the ministers concerned to discuss how do we deal with this issue and very very soon they will be able to let the public know because it can no longer be accepted, he told lawmakers.

(mine workers armed with dangerous weapons.www.worldtime.com)