July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Workers at South African operations of De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, will start a strike at 6 p.m. Johannesburg time, Head of Employee Relations Wayne Smerdon said.

Workers have not yet started the strike, with operations in South Africa currently unaffected, Smerdon said by phone.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jana Marais in Johannesburg at jmarais@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ana Monteiro at amonteiro4@bloomberg.net