The South African rand tumbled today against the U.S. dollar, erasing its previous gains, as the concerns about sovereign-debt crisis in the European Union made metal prices decline and after the two-week wedge strike.

The state-owned rail and ports operator said that the container backlog will be cleared in the South Africa’s ports as many employees returned to work, yet the Workers’ Union announced it issued secondary strike notices. Today’s report is expected to show the accelerated economic growth, which may be positive for the rand in the short term, but essentially the growth is already priced into the currency.

USD/ZAR traded near 7.972 today as of 8:50 GMT after opening at 7.831.

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