Ghost towns haunt South Africa's strike-hit platinum belt


  • World
  • Friday, 04 Apr 2014

Children play on second-hand tyres outside Lonmin Mine at Marikana's Ikaneng township in Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg, January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

MARIKANA, South Africa (Reuters) - Shad Mohammed's electronics and household store in South Africa's platinum belt has survived a series of mining strikes over the 14 years it has been serving customers in the dusty town of Marikana.

Yet with the latest stoppage now in its 10th week, he has sold just 10 phones instead of well over 100, and has had to branch out into deliveries to avoid giving up and going home to Pakistan, another statistic in a devastating industrial dispute.

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