About 15,000 striking South African truckers agreed to return to work on Wednesday, easing pressure on Africa’s biggest economy where two weeks of labour unrest in the transport sector have hit supplies of fuel, cash and consumer goods.
The decision on Tuesday by three small unions puts pressure on the biggest labour group, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), which represents about 28,000 workers, to reach a deal and suspend its calls to widen the strike to ports and rails.
It also eased investors’ concerns about widening strikes that could slow growth.
The rand, which fell to 3-1/2 year lows against the dollar on Monday on worsening investor sentiment about labour strife, firmed immediately after the news truckers would return to work, hitting a session high of 8.735.
“Three of the unions have agreed to suspend strike action,” a spokeswoman for the employers association said. It was still in talks with all groups to hammer out a final deal.
Large parts of the mining sector, responsible for about six per cent of gross domestic product, have been brought to a standstill in the last two months by wildcat strikes by more than 75,000 miners – about 15 per cent of its workforce.
Almost 50 people have been killed in the current labour strife – 34 of them by shot dead by police on August 16 in the deadliest security incident since the end of apartheid in 1994.