South Africa's rand at multi-year lows as labour strife weighs

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 24 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand struggled at five-year lows against the dollar on Friday as the second day of a strike across the country's platinum mining belt continued to unnerve investors.

The rand ZAR=D3 , which breached the 11.00 level on Thursday for the first time since October 2008, was at 11.1075 to the dollar at 1511 GMT, 1 percent weaker than Thursday's New York close.

Union leaders representing as many as 100,000 platinum miners who walked off the job on Thursday sat down with management from the world's top three producers - Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) AMSJ.J , Impala Platinum IMPJ.J and Lonmin

LMI.L LONJ.J - in a bid to end the stoppage.

The government-brokered talks will resume next week.

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An emerging markets selloff that hit currencies such as the Turkish lira, the Indian rupee and the Brazilian real on Friday also impacted the rand. Expectations of reduced monetary stimulus by major central banks have driven investors to safe haven assets in the developed world.

"South African markets have been hit by...continued strength from the dollar and the new phase of capital outflows out of emerging markets, and locally based problems - worries about strike action," said Paul Chakaduka of Global Trader.

"A lot of investors are still worried about whether or not South Africa is a good place to invest."

Government bond yields continued to rise, climbing 7 basis points to 8.565 percent on the 2026 issue ZAR186= and 10.5 basis points to 6.47 percent on the 2015 paper .

(Reporting by Tosin Sulaiman and Xola Potelwa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

((tosin.sulaiman@thomsonreuters.com)(+27 11 775 3153)(Reuters Messaging: tosin.sulaiman.thomsonreuters.com@thomsonreuters.net))

Keywords: MARKETS SAFRICA/RAND