Negotiators try to end security strike

Negotiations are continuing in South Africa to end a strike by private security guards in Johannesburg.

The guards' union is demanding a increase of twenty-five percent in wages and benefits for workers in the industry -- estimated to number about eighty-five thousand.

Among other things, they want better pay for night working and a minimum salary of around a-hundred-and-seventy dollars 1,300 rand a month.

A group of striking guards have marched through Bloemfontein to support of the action; similar protests were held in Johannesburg and Cape Town earlier in the week. Correspondents point out that South African crime figures have grown sharply in recent years, resulting in a dramatic growth in the private security industry.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service