South Africa's rand pulls back from fresh five-year low

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 14 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand touched a fresh five-year low on Tuesday against the greenback before pulling back, but could breach the 11 to the dollar level in the short term due to the economy's weak fundamentals and the threat of platinum sector strikes.

The rand ZAR=D3 was at 10.8225 to the dollar at 1433 GMT, in line with Monday's New York close, after hitting a low of 10.8950 earlier in the session, its weakest since late October 2008.

South Africa's Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) will hold a media briefing in Johannesburg on Wednesday about its current round of wage negotiations.

AMCU said on Monday its workers had voted in favour of a strike over wages at Impala Platinum (Implats) IMPJ.J , the world's second-largest producer of the metal. The union will also canvas its members at Lonmin and Amplats, a unit of global mining group Anglo American AAL.L News Search ID:nL6N0KN2U6 .

The threat of further labour unrest combined with South Africa's poor fundamentals, including widening current account and budget deficits, is likely to keep the rand under pressure.

"I wouldn't be too surprised to see the rand trading above 11 very soon," said one trader. "With the status quo it could happen quite soon."

The yield on the 2026 government bond ZAR186= climbed 7 basis points to 8.245 percent while that on the 2015 paper

ZAR157= was 1.5 basis points higher at 6.175 percent.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Africa's Treasury sold a total of 2.35 billion rand ($218 million) of its 2030 ZAR2030= , 2041

ZAR214= and 2026 ZAR186= government bonds .

(Reporting by Tosin Sulaiman; Editing by Ed Stoddard)

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

Keywords: MARKETS SAFRICA/RAND