Hannah Omarjee | omarjeehannah9@gmail.com
17 February 2023 |  10:00 AM CAT
3 min read

Photo Credit: SABC – Richard Mamabolo

The public service unions briefed the media on Thursday morning on the way forward following the protest it launched at the end of last year, against the government’s decision to implement a 3% wage increase unilaterally. The unions included those representing police officers and those in the medical sector as well as POPCRU, NEHAWU, DENOSA, SAEPU, PAWUSA, SAMATU, NUPSA, and SAPU.

POPCRU’s Richard Mamabolo said the unions think the government is being disingenuous as they are not keeping to specific processes that have been followed. These processes should be followed through bargaining councils; instead, the government decides to make a unilateral decision. The unions believe that allowing this trend to continue will set precedents for future generations.

On Friday, the Government held a special council where those unions that did not agree with the stance of striking for better pay attended and participated in the decisions the government took in expectation of what the Minister of Finance would be tabling next week. Mamabolo said that the unions were going ahead with the strike action that was supposed to be held last year. He said they would be picketing on 22 February 2023 outside parliament, where Enoch Godongwana will deliver his budget speech. On 22 February 2023 the unions planned to issue a notice of strike, which had to be submitted seven days before the strike action and communicate the actual strike date.

The primary demand that unions have placed on the government is the agreement for a 10% wage increase. Richard says, “This, of course, is based on the fact that we cannot settle for anything that is below the inflation rate, but as well as the fact that you remember that, for that past two years, three years actually employees’ salaries have not been increasing.”

The Government’s claims of insufficient funds do not deter unions from their stance. They believe that, from the beginning, the government should have worked together with them to reach an agreement that favours both parties.

Mamabolo says, “Government made a unilateral decision at the same time just after Zondo Commission revealed how much money was looted across the country. So far, nobody has been arrested, and we feel that labour cannot be made scapegoats whenever the Government has got to recover certain amounts that have been lost.”

The unions are firm in their stance that money needs to be channelled to ensure that the lives of public servants are improved.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round Up with Ml Junaid Kharsany