Pretoria - Public servants yesterday took their frustrations with the government to the streets of Pretoria, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration of paying them “meagre” salaries that were not enough to enable them to afford bread and school fees.
The workers, affiliated to the Public Servants Association (PSA), marched to the National Treasury and also decried the government view that it didn’t have money, saying the money was lost due to corruption by government officials.
Cosatu’s public sector unions are yet to decide on their strike action after reaching a deadlock on November 1.
During the march, a moniker carried by a union leader, in a jibe at Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, said: “We have arrived at the office of this one, who is not paying for water and rent. We pay for him.”
The protest march came after public sector unions reached a wage deadlock with the unions, but the government went ahead and implemented its 3% salary increase offer.
The unions initially demanded a 10% increase, but had lowered this to 6.5% by the time they reached a deadlock. The PSA was the first union to declare a dispute and decided to go on strike on November 3.
Yesterday’s PSA march was relatively peaceful, and informal traders, merchants and newspaper vendors were able to go about their business without hindrance.
The marchers poured scorn on public servants who had reported for work. Marchers stopped at some of the government buildings and mocked those who were working, saying “you are sell-outs”, and voiced some unprintable words common in wage strikes.
Yesterday the aggrieved workers, led by the PSA and the Federation of Unions of South Africa and supported by other unions such as the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA and the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers, made their plight known during the march as they demanded that the government withdraw its “unilateral implementation” of the 3% salary increase.
While they carried a list of demands contained in the memorandum which was handed over to the National Treasury officials, the workers also displayed their demands in posters, some of which took jibes at Godongwana, Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi and Ramaphosa.
They also took a swipe at the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), which accepted the offer despite it being rejected by fellow Cosatu unions.
One of the posters read: “Godongwana take that 3% (and) give (it) to Sadtu and employees of Skukuza National Park. Public Servants are bleeding.” Others read: “Government still owes us 2020 salary increase” and “We want a real increase. No manga manga business”.
The strike action came after Nxesi had indicated that the government would go ahead with the payment of a 3% salary increase, including non-pensionable cash allowances, next week. The government is expected to make the payment date on November 17.
Outlining her members’ plight, PSA provincial manager Olivia Mashego said: “We cannot afford to pay for bread. We cannot afford to pay for our children’s school fees.
We cannot even take our children to decent schools and yet we are expected to work. We are going to fight for ourselves. We are going to fight for our children’s future.
“We cannot afford to pay for bond houses. We want proper houses.”
In their demands read out by PSA president Dr Lufuno Mulaudzi, members said they wanted a single-term wage agreement, after the government’s failure to pay for their 2020 wage agreement. Mulaudzi also said they demanded a R1 000 gratuity payment beyond the March 2023 deadline, saying members were crippled by the sharp rise in the cost of food, fuel and transport.
The PSA has given Ramaphosa and his Cabinet seven working days to respond to their demands.
While Cosatu has yet to determine its response to the unilateral implementation of the government increase, Cosatu’s joint management board head Simon Hlungwani did not mince his words.
“The minister (Nxesi) thinks by saying that they as government are not undermining the current negotiations, that will automatically repeal whatever the government continues to do to exactly undermine the collective bargaining that is currently under way ... or maybe he thinks we are stupid enough to fall for the wool that he is pulling over our faces. Not a chance.
“This is serious undermining that is likely to irk the workers more than the government thinks. After all, the government knows that the workers have rejected the very offer that they are pushing down their throats.
“Instead of achieving the end result that it aims for, the opposite result will emerge, and that is the full retaliation and wrath of workers for the continued undermining of the bargaining right of workers that has been fought for by workers with blood and sweat over the past 28 years of democracy.”
Hlungwani also said that Nxesi was undermining them by inviting them to have talks with him regarding next year’s salary negotiations.
Pretoria News