Top news items in major S. African media outlets

The following are news items in South African major news outlets on Sunday.

-- Tough economic times coupled with rising unemployment are seeing platinum mines facing escalating community protests.

Protesters block access to the mines, stopping employees from going to work. These disruptions are causing losses in production, millions of rands in earnings being forfeited and more jobs to be shed. (City Press)

-- Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) members in KwaZulu-Natal not to allow the revolution to be compromised just because the African National Congress (ANC) is going through difficult times.

The deputy president was speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal SADTU's gala dinner on Saturday night. (Eyewitness News)

-- The South African National Civic Organization (SANCO) has officially endorsed Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as the African National Congress's new president to take over from Jacob Zuma at the party's elective conference in December this year.

SANCO General Secretary Skhumbuzo Mpanza said on Saturday the organization believes it is important for the ANC to emerge from the December conference with a leadership that will see the party regain the support it lost in last year's municipal elections. (South African Broadcasting Corporation) Endit