* Food inflation fuels wage demands in southern Africa
* Fuel prices, lack of electricity are also a concern
* Tax rises in Ghana threaten some gold projects
By Ed Stoddard and Clara Ferreira-Marques
CAPE TOWN, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Labour demands in the
south, power problems in the east and new tax burdens in the
west: wherever you look in Africa, miners face a perfect storm
of soaring costs.
“There is no question that there are considerable cost
pressures on all of us in the industry, whether it is
electricity, labour, whether it is inflation, overall in every
single country where we operate,” said Cynthia Carroll, chief
executive of Anglo American.
In southern Africa, the pressures are literally springing
from the soil as rising food prices hit working class budgets,
fuelling union demands for double-digit wage hikes.
In South Africa, inflation was 6.1 percent in December but
food inflation was 11.1 percent, straining the household budgets
of lower-income workers and fuelling high wage demands by unions
in the mining sector.
Analysts have said above-inflation wage hikes in South
Africa’s mining sector have not been matched by productivity
gains from its uneducated and low-skilled labour force.
Continued…
