Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana were likened to thieves by striking public servants who marched through the streets of Pretoria over their demand that a unilateral 3% pay increase be reversed.
Instead public sector unions are demanding a 10% salary increase.
Tensions escalated last month as the unions and government deadlocked over salary increases, which resulted in acting Labour and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi implementing the 3% increase a few days before Godongwana delivered his Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament on October 14.
Godongwana endorsed the increases, which were approved by three teachers’ unions, including the SA Democratic Teachers Union.
The other 10 public sector unions rejected the offer.
Outside the National Treasury offices yesterday, workers vented their anger in songs and on posters. One of the posters directed at Ramaphosa and his Cabinet read: “You behave like pit bulls”. The breed has been in the news of late over deadly attacks.
Yesterday, public servants were adamant that the government’s denial of a 10% salary increase was synonymous with “pit bulls mauling children”.
As if that was not enough, Cosatu’s first deputy president Mike Shingange agitated the workers when he said that “Cosatu is a victim of its own action”.
In his own explanation, Shingange told thousands of workers that his federation fought alongside Nxesi and he was with Sadtu and Ramaphosa while in Cosatu; “... and we fought against the apartheid government, but today, our very own have turned against us.”
“We are victims of our own actions. We fought side by side with leaders who were general secretaries of Sadtu and leaders of Numsa.
“We fought side by side with a president, who was a chief negotiator and general secretary of a union. It was during the dark days of apartheid we fought along with our liberation movement to serve the interest of the workers.
“They are the very same people who are undermining the workers’ right and not the apartheid leaders. They are the very same people who are killing and collapsing collective bargaining,” Shingange said.
Earlier, SACP’s general secretary Solly Mapaila also issued a strong warning to Nxesi and fellow SACP members serving in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet that they would not be returned to government after the 2024 elections for allegedly ignoring and undermining the interest of workers.
“We told him (Nxesi) at our politburo meeting two days ago,” Mapaila said, in a clear directive that the SACP was unhappy with their deployees in government for undermining the rights of workers. Mapaila labelled his own comrades bourgeoisie serving the capitalist interests.
Despite all these insults and jeers, Nxesi tried to keep his cool, especially as Denosa president Simon Hlugwani called him and Ramaphosa thieves. “Thieves are those in government whose bellies are shaped like watermelons. I am talking about this minister and the president,” Hlungwani said.