Disgruntled public servants are set to swamp the streets of major South Africa cities on Friday in mass marches to press for better pay, union leaders said.
The demonstrations, they said, are a mere forerunner of a full-blown strike next month by more than one million civil servants demanding a 12% salary increase.
Marches are planned by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in several cities, including Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg, Bhisho, Cape Tow, and Kimberley at 11am.
Salary talks between the state and public-service trade unions deadlocked earlier in the month, with the employer refusing to up its pay offer of 6%.
The mass action comes ahead of a last-ditch attempt to resolve the matter in a special meeting of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in Pretoria next week.
The government requested the meeting to discuss the impasse on wages, said PSCBC general secretary Shamira Huluman.
”It’s a special meeting. It’s no longer part of the negotiation process as they deadlocked and went to dispute. Basically it’s a special intervention to try to break the impasse.”
The meeting will take place on Monday and Tuesday.
Last week, all public-sector unions, representing more than one million workers, said national joint action would start on June 1.
The Cosatu public-sector unions welcomed the talks but said its mass action programme will continue until demands were met.
”We have been calling for real negotiations to commence in order to avert a national strike.”
However, meaningful negotiations can only take place based on a revised offer that genuinely attempts to address union concerns and demands, the unions said.
Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi was urged not to patronise unions by looking to ”clarify” or ”refine” an offer that had been completely rejected by more than one million public servants.
The dispute is more than a fight for a wage increase but about the future and quality of service delivery, they said.
”A long and bitter strike will not assist. We would therefore reiterate our appeal: let real negotiation commence sooner rather than later.”
The Independent Labour Caucus also welcomed the meeting.
”We will go there with an open mind to try to resolve this dispute. We’re very glad this meeting is taking place,” said chairperson Manie de Clercq. — Sapa