JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand led a broad emerging market meltdown against the dollar on Wednesday, collapsing to 12-year lows on long-standing economic frailties and more immediate socio political pressures turned sentiment against the unit.

By 1540 GMT the rand had shed 1.8 percent to 11.8925 per dollar, its weakest level against the greenback since March 2002 according to Thomson Reuters data.

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