Thousands of South African Government workers have returned to their desks after what has been described as a one-day warning strike by the Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA).
Earlier, workers in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga were among those who took to the streets calling for a 10 per cent increase across the board.
This is despite the Government’s decision to unilaterally implement a three per cent increase.
The PSA and health professionals union, HOSPERSA have revised their wage demand from 6.5 per cent back up to 10 per cent after the Government failed to honour the final stage of a 2018 wage agreement.
In 2020, the Government froze the final increase, citing strained public finances, but the unions have constantly rejected this rationale.
President of the PSA, Lufuno Mulaudzi said the Government’s failure to implement decent salary increases for the Public Service “is a result of years of fraud and corruption”.
“We have given the Government an ultimatum to respond to our memorandum of demands, otherwise we will stage a national shutdown,” Mr Mulaudzi said.
The one-day strike impacted the activities of several Government Departments, especially Home Affairs, which issues identity documents and passports.
Immigration services at the country’s border posts and airports were also affected.
So far, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union is the only body to accept the Government’s three per cent offer.
Pretoria, 14 November 2022
