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North West premier Supra Mahumapelo has welcomed trade union Amcu's imminent agreement on a wage offer by platinum
producers.
At a meeting in Wonderkop Stadium, Marikana on Thursday, union members mandated their leader Joseph Mathunjwa to accept a one-thousand rand wage increase for the lowest paid platinum workers over three years.
The increase for artisans and officials will be eight percent in the first year and the increase in the remaining two years would be 7.5 percent each.
Mathunjwa said the union had accepted the wage offer "in principle" and that an agreement was imminent.
He said, however, that the 5-month long strike would continue until an agreement was signed.
Meanwhile, the apparent breakthrough in the 5-month long platinum strike was, however, too late to have a positive effect on South Africa's international credit ratings.
Fitch ratings agency revised the outlook on South Africa from stable to negative this morning, and affirmed the country's credit rating at 'BBB.'
The ratings agency said the outlook revision was partly due to the platinum strike, which started on the 23rd of January.
The agency said South Africa's outlook for GDP growth had deteriorated and real GDP contracted.
It revised its 2014 GDP forecast to 1.7 percent, down from 2.8 percent that it issued during the last country review in December 2013.
At least one other influential global agency is reportedly also planning to revise it's rating on South Africa.
