Unions on Thursday rejected Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi’s announcement of a breakthrough in negotiations and that a 6,5% salary increase was on the table.
Representatives of 16 unions that plan to strike on Friday told a press conference that there was no such offer.
They said that what Fraser-Moleketi was talking about had emanated from a working document, which had the purpose of exploring possible settlement options ”without prejudice to any party’s rights”.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) representative Noluthando Sibiya said: ”There is no offer on the table … unions will only seek a new mandate from members at the point when a significantly improved offer is on the table.
”The documents that the minister tabled to Parliament were never tabled nor acknowledged at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council by the time the announcement was made.”
South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) general secretary Thulas Nxesi said Fraser-Moleketi’s announcement was intended to mislead the public.
He called it ”propaganda”.
”Our people are asking, ‘What exactly is the situation? Is there a new offer or not?’,” Nxesi said.
The unions stressed that the strike would start on Friday, as scheduled.
Minimal services will be in place to safeguard against total collapse, said Henry Hendricks, director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa.
‘A stretch of the truth’
Friday’s public-service strike will go ahead even if negotiators reach agreement before then, union leaders said in Cape Town on Thursday.
”Friday’s strike is going to go ahead because all the unions have committed themselves to the action … it can’t be undone,” Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, told reporters.
He said that although unions remained open to finding solutions, their members had to be consulted on whether any deal offered was adequate.
Unions had already set up report-back meetings for Monday.
Public Servants’ Association spokesperson in the province Koos Kruger said the unions passed the ”point of no return” on Wednesday night.
”The soonest we can call off the strike would be Tuesday,” he said.
Ehrenreich, Kruger and other union representatives at the briefing all condemned Wednesday’s announcement by Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi that there had been a ”breakthrough” in the bargaining talks.
Ehrenreich described this as ”a stretch of the truth”.
”There’s no breakthrough,” he said. ”Geraldine has lied to Parliament.”
Sadtu provincial secretary Jonavon Rustin said the minister had been mischievous in making the statement.
”The state has not tabled any 6,5% or 9% in the [Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council],” he said.
Provincial vice-chairperson of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation (Naptosa) of South Africa Dumisani Makhoba said: ”Naptosa is saddened by the comments made by the minister, because they were meant to mislead the public.”
Provincial secretary of Nehawu Soraya Jawoodien said staff at all public hospitals in the province would take part in the strike.
They had been asked to report to their workplaces at 7am, but to picket outside rather than go into the premises.
The 20% to 25% of staff needed to maintain essential services such as trauma and intensive care, ”and no-one else”, would be allowed across the picket lines.
Meanwhile, municipal services will not be affected by the strike as local government workers are not part of the action, said Johannesburg City municipal manager Mavela Dlamini on Thursday.
”Municipal workers are not part of the current negotiations and bargaining between the government and public-sector unions,” said Dlamini in a statement. — Sapa