”Moleketi you chicken shit!” read one of the hundreds of posters denouncing Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi for her failure to meet demands of striking public service unions.
Lydia Briedenhann (61), a clerk in the Department of Safety and Security, said the fact that civil servants of all races marched together showed workers were truly united. ”If members of Parliament can get a 12,5% increase how can they provide [the public] with good service if they are unwilling to give us the same.” She said the government’s bankrolling of former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is an insult to public service workers who cannot even afford houses on the subsidies the government offers.
For the group of white teachers shuffling self-consciously along next to toyi-toying South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) members, the strike is not just about money but about the way teachers are treated and the failure of the Department of Education to include them in decision-making that affects their careers. ”They do not support us with proper training, they foisted OBE [outcomes-based education] on us, and they do not stem the tremendous drain of teachers to the private schools.”
Although the majority of the marchers were from Sadtu, nurses and health workers joined in to protest poor conditions. Dikeledi Phefu, a nurse from Weskoppies hospital in Pretoria, said she will continue to strike next week because she simply cannot survive on her salary. ”It is nice to be here at the march. We are together with teachers and now Geraldine will see what happens when we all stop working. She must go and nurse the patients.”
In the Eastern Cape, more than 6 000 public sector workers gathered in the stands of Bisho Sports Stadium. Trade union leaders referred to the stadium as the ”Parliament of the Working Class”.
Revolutionary-speak boomed across the stadium: ”The arrogance and intransigence of Fraser-Moleketi has forced us here, we didn’t choose to come. Our clear message is that this is the beginning of even greater things to happen.”
For Jwarha Mtika, a teacher wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt with a mini-ANC flag peeping out of his back pocket, the purpose of the strike is simple: ”This is our government and we have a duty to guide it.”ÂÂ