JOHANNESBURG, May 16 (Reuters) – The rand slumped to a new
four-year low against the dollar on Thursday as news of fresh
strikes in the platinum mining sector triggered a sell-off of
South African assets.

A union official said miners at Anglo American Platinum
would stop work from Thursday evening over proposed job
cuts. The news came hours after miners ended a two-day stoppage
at rival platinum producer Lonmin .

PRETORIA, April 9 (Reuters) – South Africa’s central bank
has done reasonably well to balance economic growth and the need
to create jobs while also pursuing its mandate to keep inflation
in check, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday.

The comments, in an interview as part of a Reuters
Investment Summit, suggest President Jacob Zuma’s administration
sees no need to encourage the bank to boost growth by loosening
monetary policy 12 months ahead of a general election.

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s central bank has done well to balance economic growth and the need to create jobs in its policy decisions, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank left the repo rate at a historic low of 5 percent last month, but the OECD has said the bank has room to loosen policy further to stimulate Africa’s biggest economy after a sluggish recovery from a 2009 recession. Most economists polled by Reuters expect rates to stay on hold through 2013.

JOHANNESBURG, April 8 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe is on track for
another flawed election this year unless it can refresh outdated
voter lists, approve “an army” of outsider observers and find
foreign donors willing to pay for the vote, Finance Minister
Tendai Biti said on Monday.

However, postponing the poll to maintain a stop-gap unity
government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai is not an option, with the fractious coalition
well past its sell-by date, Biti told a Reuters Africa Summit.

PRETORIA, March 20 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Reserve Bank
left the repo rate at historical lows on Wednesday, saying
concerns about weak growth in Africa’s biggest economy were
offset by a deterioration in the inflation outlook caused a
sharply weaker currency.

However, Governor Gill Marcus made clear she would not be
stepping in to stem a 9 percent depreciation in the rand
this year, disappointing some analysts who had been
expecting a more aggressive stance to defend the currency.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Subdued European demand for its exports forced South Africa to cut its 2013 economic growth forecast on Wednesday, while missed revenue targets looked to be creating a wider budget deficit than first thought.

While vowing to keep a lid on overall spending, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan committed to more social spending for South Africa’s poorest, many who live in shanty townships and a are key support base for President Jacob Zuma as he gears up for general elections early next year.

CAPE TOWN, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Subdued European demand for
its exports forced South Africa to cut its 2013 economic growth
forecast on Wednesday, while missed revenue targets looked to be
creating a wider budget deficit than first thought.

While vowing to keep a lid on overall spending, Finance
Minister Pravin Gordhan committed to more social spending for
South Africa’s poorest, many who live in shanty townships and a
are key support base for President Jacob Zuma as he gears up for
general elections early next year.

CAPE TOWN, Feb 27 (Reuters) – South Africa cut its 2013
economic growth forecast due to subdued demand from export
markets and projected a slightly wider budget deficit than
previously forecast because of revenue collection undershooting
targets.

In his three-year budget tabled to parliament on Wednesday,
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the budget gap for the
financial year beginning in April would widen slightly to 4.6
percent of GDP from the 4.5 percent forecast in October last
year.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The day before her Paralympics star boyfriend Oscar Pistorius shot her dead, Reeva Steenkamp publicly proclaimed her support for a campaign against the violence that kills thousands of women in South Africa each year.

On her Twitter page on February 13, Steenkamp posted her support for a “Black Friday” campaign urging South Africans to wear black in honor of thousands of women raped and killed in the country, often by their partners.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The public outcry in India over the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus has prompted soul-searching in South Africa, where some people are asking: “Why not here?”

In the seven weeks since the trainee physiotherapist was raped, assaulted with a metal bar and thrown bleeding onto a highway to die, nearly 9,000 women and children will have been sexually violated in South Africa.