South African miners and municipal workers on Tuesday threatened to join an escalating strike by civil servants that has disrupted services at hospitals and schools, state media reported.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it was consulting its 280 000 members on possible strike action, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news said, a move that could hurt one of the biggest sectors of the economy.
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) is also discussing joining the stoppage.
Negotiators said on Tuesday they would not agree to a 12% wage increase demanded by civil servants.
Public Services and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the government had tabled a revised offer on Monday to resolve the five-day-old strike.
”The ball is in the court of the unions at this point in time and we are waiting for them to come back and engage with the offer on the table,” Fraser-Moleketi told reporters ahead of her budget speech in Parliament.
”We are saying let’s look at the package that’s on the table and let’s see whether there can be shifts in that package,” she said of the strike backed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions federation, a ruling party alliance partner.
Inflation
Unions could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fears are mounting that a protracted strike could have a ripple effect on Africa’s biggest economy and fuel inflation.
Civil servants complain their incomes have not kept pace with inflation. Their last pay rise in 2004 also came on the back of industrial action.
The government offered a general salary increase of 6.5% for this year, taking into account average projected inflation for 2007/08.
The offer, which unions initially rejected out of hand, also looked at improving housing allowances and night shift and danger pay.
Fraser-Moleketi said South Africa could not afford the 12% demand, saying such an increase would mean the public service wage bill would reach ”unsustainable” levels of 20% of South Africa’s gross domestic product.
Tensions have risen since the start of the strike on Friday, with police using stun grenades on picket lines and authorities accusing the union of forcing workers to stay away from work.
Fraser-Moleketi said the state would press ahead with criminal charges against those accused of intimidating non-striking public servants.
”Industrial action is not a war … We abhor the fact that there have been members of unions pulling health personnel out of wards in hospitals,” she said.
Fraser-Moleketi said the deployment over the last 24 hours of 820 members of the defence force’s medical units had helped improve services in hospitals and clinics.
Protests in Durban
About 5 000 public servants converged on Durban’s Botha Gardens at the start of a march in the city on Wednesday morning.
There was a heavy police presence, with numerous officers armed with truncheons and shotguns.
It is believed that the march was called by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) late on Tuesday evening.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said he did not know if the strikers had obtained official permission for the march.
One protester carried a placard which read: ”Educated beggar for 25 years. PLEASE HELP!”
Another group of protesters carried a mock coffin with ”6%” written on it.
Earlier in the day police dispersed a group of protesters outside the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Cato Manor.
Mdunge also said that protesters were dispersed from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Phoenix.
There were also a small band of protesters outside Addington Hospital. – Reuters, Sapa