According to professional groups, thousands of public employees in South Africa went on a one-day strike on Thursday over salary issues.
One of South Africa’s main public sector unions, the Public Servants Association (PSA), which has over 235,000 members, is in charge of the work stoppage.
After Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi declared this week that he would raise salaries by 3% while the unions were requesting 6.5%, the conflict over public employee compensation erupted.
Strikers in the health, immigration, and police sectors kept picket lines during the daytime hours in the vicinity of Pretoria’s core government buildings.
The Department of Home Affairs, transportation, and customs services were all predicted to see “severe impacts” as a result of the strike, per the PSA.
The minister’s careless behaviour, according to the union, “has deteriorated already fragile social connections and worsened the loss of confidence” with the social partners.
Enoch Godongwana, the finance minister of South Africa, stated at a budget presentation in October that the government could only afford a 3.3 percent pay increase, which was significantly less than the 7.8 percent inflation rate in July.
Several weeks of rail and port service strikes have already had a significant negative impact on South Africa’s economy, affecting exports of minerals and fresh produce.
