Johannesburg - South African bonds were weaker in midday trade on Monday on a softer rand and certain wage demands being made which are ten times higher than inflation.
“The softer rand and the unrealistic wage demands in the mining sector have hurt our bonds‚” a local bond trader said.
At 11:51 the benchmark R186 was trading at 6.930% from 6.820% at Friday’s close.
The R157 was trading at 5.110% from 5.035% at its previous close‚ and the R207 was trading at 5.920% from 5.880% at its previous close.
The rand was bid at R9.4660 to the US dollar from 9.4002 at Friday’s close and R9.3102 at Thursday’s close.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Friday submitted its wage demands to the Chamber of Mines for the 2013 wage negotiations. The union demanded that surface workers should receive a minimum salary of R7‚000 and underground and opencast workers’ minimum should be set at R8‚000 per month. For all other categories‚ the NUM has put a demand of a 15% increase. Furthermore‚ the union demanded that rock drill operators’ job categories be rolled up to category 8‚ while other categories are rolled up to category 7.