World

Mining industry South Africa to shed 10 000 jobs

by Miriam Mannak | December 2, 2008 at 10:43 pm

458 views | 33 Recommendations | 4 comments

One of the sectors in South Africa that has been struck hard by the economic crisis, is the mining industry. According to various trade unions, South African mining companies are about to retrench 10 000 workers.

The Solidarity union claims that eight mines have issued lay off notices to about 9,000 workers. Another 1,000 job losses were expected.

South Africa has always thrived on mining - gold for instance, or more importantly platinum. Although mining is still one of the strongest performing industries, the credit crisis which led to a global economic meltdown has causes problems.

Together with currencies, the prices of commodities have plummeted. Platinum, mainly used in the motoring industry, has for instance lost 60% of its value over the past months. It is therefore not a surprise that the bulk of lay-offs come from South Africa's platinum mines. Diamond mines are also expect to shed jobs. Due to the economic turmoil, the hunger for luxury goods has subsided.

In addition to the declining prices of natural resources, the export of raw materials has dropped significantly.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Nicolai M

at 01:28 on December 3rd, 2008

In the light of your story, I would love to see how Jacob Zuma will create 2 million new jobs, as was mentioned in newspapers yesterday. If there is no demand or declining demand for a product, there's no way companies are going to do new start-ups or employ more people. Most of these workers are unfortunately in the bread and butter jobs, which is the most difficult to create, and you can mainly employ them in some manufacturing and construction sectors, where the kills demands are not that high. Even the consturction industry is facing declining demand for both business and residential property. We should rather train people to become self-sufficient by providing training that focuces on becoming self-reliant. Entrepreneurship is one of the few ways to try and survive the difficult times ahead. I am not convinced that SA will truly come through the global economic meltdown unscathed.

Paschen

at 01:55 on December 3rd, 2008

South Africa may very well soon face a serious popular uprising and this could plunge the country into total chaos. Not some thing to look forward to. The Government needs to do a lot more and a lot faster in order to keep the Peace and warrant Unity.

Jordan Yerman

at 05:30 on December 3rd, 2008

I would think that diamonds, kept artificially scarce, would be less prone to suffering from the current economic crisis, but I guess not.

piet (not verified)

at 00:12 on December 17th, 2008

What a great idea, I have been wanting to warn job seekers about Findata Financial Services, also known as Finsolnet. Findata makes allot of promises, and never ever delivers. They try to keep you in the company by promising more responsibility, higher pay, funny and pyramid type commission structures (you pull on the short end) and client service means nothing for them, taking client money without providing service they do that gladly. Please job seekers, stay away from Findata financial services.