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Striking public service unions have rejected the government's latest wage offer, South African TV reported on Wednesday.
"The overwhelming majority have rejected the offer," Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says.
The government was offering a 7.5% wage increase and a R800 monthly housing allowance.
The strike has been ongoing for more than two weeks, with unions wanting an 8.6% increase and R1000 monthly housing allowance.
The Democratic Alliance has reacted to the report by saying the strike has turned into a political battle. “The South African public is being held hostage to a political battle between the unions and the ANC,” says Ian Ollis, the party’s shadow deputy minister of labour.
“What the unions have failed to do up until this point, is to give any indication as to how government is supposed to find the money to accommodate the R8-billion difference between what they are demanding, and what government is prepared to offer.
“This seems to suggest that they are not prepared to deal with reality; rather with making a political point. South Africa, and our economy, is poorer for it,” Ollis says.
“A rejection of this latest offer is no doubt aimed directly at the President himself. The unions have one of two choices: They can either put forward a practical proposal as to how government is to find this money, or they can force their demand through, and face the prospect of losing tens of thousands of jobs in the near future, because of the implications of that insistence.”
