Thousands of police, prisons and traffic officials marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday in support of their demands for higher wages and threatened to strike if their demands aren’t met.
SA labour law prohibits strikes by workers in essential services, including law enforcement, but the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said members would stay away if instructed to do so.
“We are undermined all the time, [yet] we are told we are essential service workers,” Popcru president Zizamele Cebekhulu told protesters. “Today, I want to say that we will go on a strike.”
The march by Popcru members — some of whom were bussed in from around the country — came after public service unions rejected the government’s revised final offer of a 3%, pay rise. Unions are demanding a 6.5% increase for the country’s more than 1.3-million public servants. Popcru represents 160,000 police, prisons and traffic officers.
The 3% offer was tabled at the public service co-ordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) on August 30, and was viewed to be in line with the government’s commitments to slash the R665bn public service wage bill to an annual average increase of 1.8%. Pay for government workers accounts for more than a third of state spending.
PSCBC general secretary Frikkie de Bruin told Business Day: “We have issued certificates of non-resolution to SAPU [SA Policing Union] and PSA [Public Servants Association]. SAPU cannot go on strike as they work in an essential service.”
Popcru formally rejected the 3% offer at meeting with police minister Bheki Cele and his justice and correctional services counterpart, Ronald Lamola, on Tuesday. Both men were booed when they took to the stage and said the workers’ departments would be informed of their demands.
The government previously offered a 2% hike, citing a lack of funds, before raising it to 3% to match the increase offered recently to ministers and their deputies, provincial premiers, MECs, MPs, MPLs, judges and traditional leaders.
Public service unions have trimmed their demand from 10% to 6.5%, which is the headline inflation rate the Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022. Failure to resolve the dispute at the PSCBC would lead to a strike certificate being issued, allowing non-essential services workers to strike.
Cebekhulu said members’ pay amounted to a “stipend” that rendered them unable to afford housing and other basic necessities.
“Even [the] apartheid [regime] has not done to us what is happening us,” Cebekhulu said while criticising the National Treasury for implementing austerity measures. “That Treasury, one day we will invade it,” he said.
Cebekhulu also took a swipe at President Cyril Ramaphosa: “The president, he is our commander, we are telling him: ‘Please wake up. You are in deep sleep. Wake up’.”
Cebekhulu also threatened Popcru would march to parliament in Cape Town. “We just want salary increases. 10%. Just 10%. That’s what we want” he said.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi commended law enforcement officials for playing a crucial role during the unrest that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July 2021 after the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.
Losi said members would not accept austerity measures and alleged that the country’s budget is “run somewhere outside the country” and does not meet the people’s needs. She did not offer further details.
Popcru’s national march follows a wildcat strike by Eskom employees about three months ago, which resulted in management agreeing to implement a 7% pay increase, which will more than R1bn-plus to the cash-strapped power utility’s costs.
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