The rand is weaker in early trade on Monday as traders eye developments in the SA platinum industry.

"The rand weakened across the board last week. Although the Fed's announcement of another round of quantitative easing (QE3) helped the rand to recoup some losses during the latter half of the week, the local unit still went into the weekend down on the week as a result of the ongoing fracas within the country's mining sector," Absa Capital said in their morning statement.

At 8.14am, the rand was bid at R8.2203 to the dollar from R8.1978 at Friday's close. It was bid at R10.7881 to the euro from its previous close of R10.8030 and at R13.3244 against sterling from R13.3682 before. The euro was bid at $1.3128 from $1.3115 at Friday's close.

"Not only has the mining outages hindered investor sentiment, but the industrial action also poses a threat to the country's growth and current account deficit situation," Absa Capital said.

"The mining situation remains tense, with four of SA platinum mines not operating at present. Lonmin's wage offer was rejected on Friday and the military has now been deployed to the Rustenburg area after government officials vowed to clamp down on intimidation and illegal strike activity on Friday," it added.

Softer on curve steepening

The South African bond market was softer in early trade on Monday as foreign selling pressure continued to lead to curve steepening.

At 8.42am, the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.565 percent from 5,540 percent at Friday's close and 5.480 percent at Thursday's and Wednesday's close. The R207 was bid at 6.630 percent and offered at 6.610 percent from Friday's close of 6.595 percent, and the R186 was trading at 7.660 percent from 7.600 percent at its previous close.

The rand was bid at R8.2272 from Friday's close of R8.1978 and Thursday's close of R8.2365.