Technology trumps tradition in bid to end South Africa mine strike

By Ed Stoddard MTHATHA, South Africa (Reuters) - When the world's top three platinum firms opted to tackle South Africa's worst mining strike by sidestepping the militant AMCU union, they faced a huge logistical challenge: how to contact 70,000 men spread across the country and cowed by violence. With many workers sitting out the four-month strike at home in rural areas such as the Eastern Cape, the answer was a two-pronged approach combining ancient and modern - a reflection of the split personality of Africa's most developed economy. Besides SMS and email bursts and local language radio slots, the companies - Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin - called on tribal elders to help sell their pay offers to strikers. \"The miners want to go back to work but they are afraid of being killed,\" said Xolile Ndevu, general secretary of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa and one of the intermediaries asked to negotiate after talks deadlocked. Read More http://ift.tt/1nDUdxL