JOHANNESBURG -- Anglo American Platinum fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday, a high-stakes attempt by the world's biggest platinum producer to push back at a wave of illegal stoppages sweeping through South Africa's mining sector and beyond.

The rand fell sharply after the announcement, suggesting investors fear the sackings could worsen what is shaping up to be the most damaging period of labor unrest in Africa's biggest economy since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Police shot dead one striking miner overnight, bringing the death toll in two months of unrest to 48. Strikes have spread beyond the mining sector, with Shell declaring on Friday that it would not be able to honor contracts to deliver fuel near Johannesburg because of a trucking strike.

'What happens now?'
The unrest is causing political trouble for President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress, the veteran liberation movement with long-standing ties to labor unions.

"You fire 12,000 people, and it's like 'Oh my god, what happens now?'" one Johannesburg-based currency strategist said.

Clashes after South Africa cops raid miners' hostels to seize weapons

When rival Impala Platinum fired 17,000 workers in January to squash a union turf war, it led to a six-week stoppage in which three people were killed, the company lost 80,000 ounces in output and platinum prices jumped 21 percent.

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'Murder on a massive scale': Angry fallout from S. Africa mine shootings

The police shooting of 34 strikers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine on Aug. 16 poisoned labor relations in the sector even more, and the hefty wage deal that ensued triggered copycat demands in gold and iron ore mines.

"Amplats [Anglo American Platinum] had been giving signals that it was going to hold the line after Lonmin had folded -- but it's a huge gamble," said Nic Borain, an independent political analyst.

Voice of hate or hero? South Africa's downtrodden workers put faith in Malema

"Someone had to take it on the chin or this would have kept on unraveling and spread through the economy. It's difficult to know whether this causes the unrest to spread or whether it takes some of the sting out of it. It could go either way."

Speaking to South Africa's e-News television channel, one dismissed worker said Amplats was "starting a war."

Factbox: South Africa since apartheid

Zuma tried to put a positive spin on the situation in a speech to business leaders late on Thursday, stressing that since the end of white-minority rule South Africans have shown "the capacity to overcome difficulties when we work together".

"We should not seek to portray ourselves as a nation that is perpetually fighting," he said. 

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

MARIKANA, South Africa -- South African police on Saturday fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse miners rallying in Marikana after raids on their hostels to seize arms, witnesses said. 

About 500 police officers raided the hostels at Lonmin's Karee platinum mine near Marikana -- scene of the killing of 34 miners by police last month -- in the early morning and seized machetes, spears and other weapons, police spokesman Thulani Ngubane said 

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Saturday's incident was the latest in five weeks of labor unrest that has choked off platinum production in the world's top producer of the precious metal. 

It broke out as Lonmin increased its pay offer to striking miners, although the revised figure was still short of the 12,500 rand ($1,500) that they demand. An earlier offer on Friday was rejected. 

 Voice of hate or hero? South Africa's downtrodden workers put faith in Malema

Police arrested five people in the raids on the hostels, home to about 6,000 miners, but for drugs offences not weapons, Ngubane said. 

"The aim of the raid was to disarm the mine workers to make sure that we do away with the elements of threats that are taking their toll in the area of Marikana," Ngubane said. 

Miners later gathered at a field in Marikana, about 60 miles northwest of Johannesburg, and police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them, a Reuters journalist at the scene said. 

 South Africa uses apartheid-era law to accuse 270 miners of murder

In Marikana last month police shot 34 striking miners dead in a single day, the bloodiest police action in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. A total of 44 people have been killed in the unrest. 

The "Marikana massacre" has poisoned industrial relations in South Africa and drawn criticism that President Jacob Zuma and the ruling ANC have been too slow in dealing with the widening crisis. 

 'Murder on a massive scale': Angry fallout from S. Africa mine shootings

The mine shootings have also made it hard for the police to use force to break up of strikers, most of whom are armed with sticks, spears and machetes. 

The government said on Friday it would crack down on illegal gatherings and the carrying of weapons. 

Led by the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the strikes have threatened the long dominance of the National Union of Mineworkers, which is in an alliance with the ruling African National Congress. 

The strikers say that the ANC and big unions have forgotten the needs of South Africa's millions of poor. 

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

The withdrawal of controversial murder charges against 270 South African miners for the killings of 34 striking co-workers by police followed intense public pressure -- including a report that the victims were shot execution-style or crushed by police vehicles.

Public anger had been mounting at the charges, made under an apartheid-era law under which the miners were deemed to have had a "common purpose" in the murder of their co-workers by creating violent disorder.

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The police killing of the strikers last month at the Marikana mine, run by platinum producer Lonmin, was the worst such security incident since the end of white rule in 1994, and recalled scenes of state brutality from that era.

Since then, South Africa has become the richest country on the continent, but the wealth has remained in the hands of minority whites joined by a small black elite.

At Marikana, the strike and violence stem from a turf struggle for members between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers and the small but militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which has flared across the platinum belt.

Reporter finds 'murder on a massive scale'
A widely-read article last week by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Greg Marinovich in the Daily Maverick newspaper, based on a two-week investigation, challenged the official account.

Mine 'bloodbath' shocks post-apartheid South Africa

Marinovich, citing eyewitness testimony and forensic research, reported that some of the miners were shot execution-style or crushed by police vehicles.

"It is becoming clear to this reporter that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood. A minority were killed in the filmed event where police claim they acted in self-defense. The rest was murder on a massive scale," he wrote.

PhotoBlog: Miners gather to pray for South African shooting victim at site of violence

Most of the 270 miners were arrested Aug. 16 after police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 and wounding 78. The shootings shocked the nation.

Police said they acted in self-defense after the miners shot at them. Most miners were armed with homemade clubs and machetes but police said they recovered several handguns from the scene.

Ten people had been killed in a week of violence over union rivalries that preceded the shootings. Some of those killed were officials of the National Union of Mineworkers, while two police officers were hacked to death and two mine security guards were burned alive in their vehicle.

S. Africa uses apartheid-era law to accuse 270 miners of murder

"In a country that does not sanction judicial killings, even pedophiles and rapists get hauled before a judge. These miners were not even given that," Marinovich told NBC News.

South Africa officially abolished capital punishment in 1995.

"But it’s not for me to decide. It's for the judge to decide. I’m just a reporter," he said by telephone in South Africa.

Marininovich conceded that the miners in question were not entirely innocent -- some of them may have even committed murder --but "there should have been a judge. That’s what the law is for. That’s what the law is meant to decide."

Marinovich’s account backed research conducted by Peter Alexander of the University of Johannesburg.

South Africa to withdraw murder charges against miners

Charges withdrawn
Even South Africa’s justice minister had challenged the prosecutor's decision to charge the arrested miners.

Nomqcobo Jiba, the acting director of public prosecutions, did not say why she had reversed her decision to shift the blame from the police to the miners.

"The murder charge against the current 270 suspects ... will be formally withdrawn," she told a news conference on Sunday.

She said the miners would be released from jail with a warning, providing police could verify their home addresses.

She said other charges, ranging from public violence and illegal gathering to illegal possession of firearms, would remain, but the cases were being postponed pending final investigations and the findings of a judicial commission of inquiry, which is to report to President Jacob Zuma's government by January.

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Irvin Jim, secretary general of the National Union of Metal Workers, said Sunday that the police shootings confirm that South Africa has not transformed "the apartheid state and its violent machinery."

Zuma comes under criticism
The killings, and the plight of miners who were demanding higher wages, has highlighted the failures of Zuma's government just as he prepares to run for re-election in December as president of the governing African National Congress, a position that would virtually guarantee him another term as president.

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Zuma's government is criticized for failing to address the concerns of South Africans suffering high unemployment, housing shortages and growing inequality between rich and poor.

Lonmin's mines have been idle for three weeks, and labor strife has spread from the platinum sector to gold, where a quarter of the 46,000-strong workforce at Gold Fields have staged a wildcat strike, further unsettling investors.

The stakes are high. South Africa sits on about 80 percent of the world's known reserves of the precious metal, used to make catalytic converters for automobiles.

NBC News' staff, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Nine people including two policemen have been killed in clashes between labor unions at a South African mine operated by the world's third biggest platinum producer Lonmin, by far the deadliest spate of violence in a turf war rocking the sector.

Lonmin said the situation was "volatile" at its Western Platinum mine, 60 miles northwest of Johannesburg. The plant was operating at reduced capacity and was under heavy police guard.

Police told Reuters two policemen died after a machete attack by a mob near the mine. Another officer was badly injured and police in turn shot dead three protestors.

"We came under attack. The suspects took our weapons. A shootout ensued and during that incident three suspects were fatally injured," spokesman Lindela Mashigo told Reuters.

According to the BBC, police spokesman Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said the rioters were deploying "guerrilla tactics," rapidly forming 5,000-strong groups of attackers before dispersing.

The mine is part of Lonmin's Marikana operations, which produced 1.3 million ounces of platinum group metals in 2011. Company officials could not say how much production had been lost but they are expected to update the market later this week.

In London, Lonmin shares were down more than 1.5 percent.

The clashes involve a struggle for membership between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).

At least three people were killed in a similar round of violence in January that led to a six-week closure of the world's largest platinum mine, run by Impala Platinum.

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The whole platinum sector is grappling with declining world prices for the precious metal and a surge in union militancy in South Africa, home to 80 percent of known reserves.

Aquarius Platinum briefly shut one of its shafts this month after an attack by unidentified assailants that left three dead and at least 20 injured.

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The latest bout of blood-letting is the worst yet.

Two security guards were hacked to death on Sunday, while the NUM said one of its members was killed while trying to report for duty. Lonmin said a fourth employee had been found dead with several gunshot wounds.

Operators start strike
The trouble began on Friday with an illegal strike by 3,000 rock drill operators at Western Platinum mine, echoing previous incidents when AMCU has tried to recruit NUM members.

January's stoppage at Implats also started with an illegal strike by rock drillers.

NUM and Lonmin officials told Reuters workers who wanted to report for duty were being intimidated. AMCU has faced the same allegations elsewhere but has always denied them.

Trade union Solidarity, which mostly represents skilled white workers, said three of its members had been assaulted and severely injured when they tried to report for duty.

It said if Lonmin could not guarantee the safety of its members it would instruct them not to go to work, a situation which would cripple the Western Platinum operations.

AMCU General Secretary Jeff Mphahlehle told Reuters he would have an emergency meeting with Lonmin management on Monday and said members of his union had also been attacked. Lonmin confirmed it was in talks with the union.

The AMCU/NUM rivalry, which has already caused friction at Lonmin's Karee mine, has now spread to other shafts at a time when the company is cutting back on investment plans in the face of weak demand and shrinking margins.

The challenge to the dominance of the 300,000-strong NUM also has political ramifications given its role as a key support base for the ruling African National Congress.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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