Unions appealed on Tuesday to striking public servants to remain disciplined after clashes at schools and hospitals in some provinces.
”The unions are doing everything possible to make action peaceful, disciplined and legal and condemn any attempts to use violence and intimidation,” said Congress of South African Trade Unions spokesperson Patrick Craven.
Craven also appealed to police officers to exercise restraint when dealing with striking workers.
On Monday striking teachers tore up exam scripts and manhandled a pupil at Malibu Secondary School, in Blue Downs, Cape Town.
A group of protesting teachers ransacked a primary school in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, before assaulting the principal.
Legal strike
South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) deputy general secretary Don Pasquallie said: ”People must remember that this is a legal strike and it must take place within strike and picketing rules.
”We are appealing to those involved [in violent acts] to desist immediately … it [intimidation] can sway public sentiment which we believe at present is in favour of the unions.”
Pasquallie said communities not in favour of the strike should remember that striking workers were not being paid while on strike, and it was up to the employers to make arrangements for delivering services.
At Kebonang High School at Mmabatho in North West, eight pupils were arrested following an altercation with striking teachers and were later released into the custody of their parents.
The pupils were part of a group protesting against the strike who wanted to be taught.
Captain Lesego Metsi said the pupils would be formally charged with assault and public violence.
Durban’s Wentworth hospital was evacuated on Monday following a bomb scare at 10am and police arrested 12 striking workers at the Addington Hospital after a group of strikers had apparently entered the institution and attempted to force nurses out.
Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said the situation was back to normal early on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the government’s revised pay package including a proposed 6,5% general increase was rejected minutes after it was made on Monday.
Business is booming in South Africa but civil servants say they have not had a pay rise since one that ended a major public service strike in 2004.
Anger boiled over when an official body recommended Mbeki should receive a 57% pay rise in a country where the vast majority of black South Africans still live in grim townships. He says socio-economic conditions have improved. – Sapa, Reuters