The world's biggest platinum producer, Anglo American, fired 12,000 of its employees in South Africa on Friday, after they allegedly staged an illegal three-week strike.

The tough measures come at a time when labor unrest is spreading in South Africa.

Oil giant Shell said on Friday that a two-week strike by truck drivers had hampered its fuel delivery operations, and police shot dead a striking miner overnight on Thursday, bringing the death toll in recent labor disputes to 48.

Overall, more than 75,000 miners - 15 percent of the sector's workforce - have participated in official strikes since employees at the Marikana mine, owned by the platinum firm Lonmin, staged a work stoppage in August.

Police shot dead 34 of the protesting workers at Lonmin in South Africa's bloodiest episode of violence since the end of Apartheid.

sej/tj (Reuters, dpa)