Industrial action at Kumba Iron Ore’s mine at Sishen in Northern Cape further dents investor confidence in country

Wildcat miners’ strikes in South Africa have spread to the iron ore sector and hit another gold firm, in an escalation of the labour unrest that is testing President Jacob Zuma’s leadership.

The industrial action, involving 300 workers at Kumba Iron Ore’s mine at Sishen in Northern Cape, further dented investor confidence in the continent’s wealthiest economy as it showed protests had moved beyond platinum and gold mines. Kumba is part of the London-listed company Anglo American.

Workers at the Kusasalethu gold mine near Johannesburg, operated by South Africa’s No. 3 bullion producer Harmony Gold, also downed tools in what management called an “unlawful” action launched outside the normal collective wage bargaining channels.

Zuma is under fire for failing to address and contain a series of protests by workers demanding higher wages, which in August led to the killing by police of 34 strikers at the Marikana platinum mine run by Lonmin.

The “Marikana massacre” jogged painful memories of apartheid-era killings by the security forces, and it has kindled heated debate over glaring wealth inequalities persisting in South Africa since the end of white minority rule in 1994.