The South African Rand is pressurized while the mining sector in Africa's biggest economy suffered of strikes that threaten the growth of the country.

The movement also extends to the gold mines and the Anglo-Australian company Gold One also announced the layoff of 1435 miners in Ezulwini a workforce of 1900. The company Amplats has not hesitated to dismiss its 12,000 employees to 28,000 while the group, which represents a quarter of the world production of platinum, has already announced a shortfall of about 1.1 billion rand (approximately 126 million dollars).

The current impasse in the mining sector, which weighs 20% of South African GDP, worried foreign investors. More than 10 billion rand (about 1.14 billion U.S. dollars), would have already left the country. Finally, the rating agency Standard and Poor's has downgraded the country from BBB+ to BBB with a negative outlook due to the impact of strikes on growth.

Anticipating further complications in social relations in South Africa before returning to appeasement, the threshold of ZAR 10.5 tested several times between 2008 and 2009, may reach in the short term.