Schussler :Worker striking for higher wages cripples economy

Andiswa Mkosi

05 September 2012

Economist Mike Schüssler says striking Lonmin mine workers are probably in the top 12-percent of earners in South Africa.

According to Schüssler, the workers’ continued striking for higher wages is actually hurting South Africa’s poor.

He adds that wage demands of 12-and-a-half-thousand-Rands per month are not realistic in a country with an unemployment rate of over 20-percent.

Meanwhile, around a thousand striking miners are marching through Marikana, apparently trying to persuade their working colleagues to also down tools.

The group is being followed by police in Nyala vehicles. The miners are armed with knobkieries and other weapons.