Striking South African unions considering latest offer

Lonmin workers on strike react as they listen to President of South Africa's Association of Mine workers and Construction Union (AMCU) Joseph Mathunjwa's (not in picture) speech at the Wonderkop stadium in Nkaneng township outside the Lonmin mine in Rustenburg May 14, 2014. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's largest union will consider the latest government wage proposal, it said on Tuesday, raising hopes of an end to a three-week strike in the metals and engineering sectors that has sapped the continent's most advanced economy.

"We will look at the offer this afternoon," Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), told Reuters. Over 200,000 NUMSA members downed tools on July 2.