Aug 10, 2010 9:44 PM
By last night, the country was on a knife's edge, with 1.3-million public servants preparing to embark on an indefinite strike from tomorrow unless the government improves its wage offer.
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Public Services and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi was given until late last night to raise his 7% pay increase offer, 1.6% lower than the amount union federation Cosatu and its affiliates are demanding.
Thousands of protesting workers marched on Pretoria's Union Buildings yesterday as their Cape Town counterparts marched on Parliament.
Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi took a swipe at President Jacob Zuma's salary before a 15000-strong crowd in Cape Town.
"If my memory serves me right, he is earning more than R2.2-million. He has blood just like we do. He has family, a big family, just like we do. Our needs are the same. We want geld. Ons soek geld," Vavi said to cheers.
Vavi contrasted the salaries of civil servants with those of their bosses, saying police officers, "who have seen the eyes of a child rapist", earn a "mere" R7000, and prison guards, "who keep behind bars these red-eyed criminals", earn only R6750.
An entry-level teacher makes R9271 and a nurse's assistant R5053.
"The director-generals, those at the top of the civil service, earn R100000 a month. And a minister, do you know how much they earn? R143000 per month," he said.
Protestors held placards that read "R10 can't even buy a prostitute" and "You take our money to give to Malema to destroy the country".
In his address in Pretoria, lasting less than a minute, Baloyi said the government was "committed to addressing problems".
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union spokesman Norman Mampane said: "We are not to be blamed if things get out of control while our members are on strike."
Yesterday, Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said: "We would hope the government responds positively after the huge turnout by workers, and averts the need for a strike. But the new offer must have a significant improvement."
Craven promised there would be no violence or intimidation by members if the strike went ahead.
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa spokesman Asanda Fongqo said: "We will go on until our demands are met."
As the national Department of Health issued a statement, saying it was monitoring the impact of the strike on hospitals and clinics, nurses at Soweto's Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital said they feared intimidation.
One nurse said she wore plain clothes yesterday in case she was targeted in her uniform.
Another said: "We want to work, but we can't risk our lives."
Baloyi's spokesman, Dumisani Nkwamba, said the amount the government needed to cover the 8.6% salary increase had not yet been calculated.
"We have a problem already because we would have run short by R3.7-billion if the current [7%] offer was accepted," he said.
Besides an 8.6% increase, civil servants are also demanding a R1000 housing allowance, while government is offering R630.
South African Democratic Teachers' Union spokesman Nomusa Cembi said that pupils should today return to their schools, where they would be informed if the strike was going ahead tomorrow. - Additional reporting by Zandile Mbabela and Harriet McLea
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