The Editorial Page South African strike

Now slipping dangerously onto centre stage in an increasingly troubled world are the striking black South African gold miners.

It’s an explosive situation in that already politically torn and divided country. The strikers seem determined to win, and the mining companies equally determined that they will not. A confrontation like that, in South Africa, appears sure to ignite even more violence.

We can’t take much comfort either in the possibility that gold could soar even further on international money markets as a result of a prolonged South African strike. Our long-term interests, as well as South Africa’s, would be better served if gold were to advance in a more orderly market environment, not blown by discord and growing violence in the world’s leading gold-producing nation.

We can only hope for a settlement at the mines in South Africa, but there’s precious little right now to indicate that’s a possibility. The seeds of apartheid may have sunk too deep.