Open figure viewer
Significance
The disruption at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold mines reflects wider turmoil in the gold mining sector, including a 13th consecutive month of production decline in October. Meanwhile, electricity prices, wage demands and strikes are increasing.
Impacts
Gold mining job losses are unlikely to be adequately absorbed by other sectors due to use of new technology and stagnant national growth.
Each gold mining job supports over five dependents, meaning near-term job losses could provoke increased social strife ahead of 2019 polls.
While short-term job losses may have a muted impact on annual growth, 100,000 job losses over the next decade will prove more debilitating.
Keywords:
South Africa,
AF,
economy,
industry,
politics,
social,
electricity,
employment,
energy,
exchange rate,
gold,
government,
labour,
mining,
policy,
strike,
unions,
wages,
election,
monetary,
talks,
Metals & mining
© Oxford Analytica 2020. All rights reserved. This content contains general information about geopolitical, macroeconomic and social developments or (where stated) other matters. It does not contain advice or recommendations that may be relied on. Where links to external websites are provided, this does not indicate that Oxford Analytica or Emerald agree with, endorse or have checked for accuracy the contents of said sites.
2018
You do not currently have access to this content.
