He was speaking a the Africa Asian summit in Indonesia where he called for a the establishment of a new Silk Road binding the continents even closer together.

Dealing with the xenophobic violence at home forced President Jacob Zuma to miss this historic gathering that ocurrs ever decade.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who went in his stead, notes that the 1955 Bandung conference, followed independence for many of the participants and created ties of solidarity and cooperation between countries driven by a desire to build a free, just and peaceful world.

That conference helped to shape the post-colonial world.

The Indonsian meeting wrapped up yesterday with participants vowing to give better play to the private sector’s role in advancing economic growth and sustainable development in Asia and Africa.

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The Union says there’s pressure for this from its memberscwho are citizens of the mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa.

NUM general secretary Frans Baleni says there real concern about Lesotho following the attempted coup last month that sent prime minister Thomas Thabane briefly into exile in South Africa.

Thirteen years ago the  NUM resolved  that South Africa should seriously consider incorporating Lesotho.

It’s calling for fresh dialogue on this.

Baleni says Basothos must decide their future and South Africa must decide how to take the process forward.

For now, it’s important that stability returns to Lesotho and that it reverts to a democracy.

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The country’s Labour Ministry says the three-week strike by metalworkers, the largest union, could be settled by week’s end.

The National Union of Mineworkers was not the majority syndicate in the five-month outage by 80 000 workers at three pits that produce 80 percent of the world’s platinum.

Impala Platinum, Lonmin and Anglo American Platinum say the strike cut their production by 40 percent and cost them 1.76 billion euros.

Angloplats says it will sell two mines it owns in Rustenburg northwest of Johannesburg and another it owns jointly with Lonmin.

It reported eleven million euros in headline earnings for the first six months of this year, compared with 93.3 million euros in the same period last year.

The NUM head Frans Baleni says selling mines will cost 20 000 jobs and it will try to stop this.

The 220 000-member National Union of Metalworkers and representatives of 12 000 engineering and car making firms met at the weekend to try to end their three-week strike.

The Labour Ministry says discussions went well and they’re confident there will be a settlement by the end of the week.

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