Public: Further R66bn to avoid strike

A WAGE deal agreed with nurses, teachers and other civil servants in South Africa would cost the government an additional R66 billion, acting public service and administration minister Nkosinathi Mthethwa said on Friday. The government would draw on funds from its contingency reserves to help pay for the salary increases, which were not budgeted for in its fiscal plan, he said. The department would meet with the Treasury to discuss financing options. A strike by 1.3 million workers was averted after a three-year agreement was signed last week, which increases wages by 7 percent this year and 1 percent more than the inflation rate for the next two years. Housing and medical subsidies will also rise. The Treasury made a provision in the February 25 budget for the wage bill to rise by an average of 6.6 percent in each of the three years to March 2018. – Bloomberg