By Karima Brown, Jeremy Michaels and Angela Bolowana
President Thabo Mbeki has signalled a tougher government approach to pay talks by slamming teachers for "abandoning" the classroom to march in the middle of wage negotiations.
But the Congress of South African Trade Unions hit back at Mbeki, saying his government was paying "slave wages" and setting a bad example for the private sector.
In an apparent attempt to strengthen their hand in wage negotiations due to resume on Friday, thousands of public servants marched across the country yesterday under the banner of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu).
Public sector unions want the government to raise its wage increase offer to seven percent from 5.5 percent, arguing that the present offer is not enough if inflation rises beyond the target of three percent to six percent.
Speaking in Gugulethu, Cape Town, Mbeki laid down the law for public servants who took to the streets, insisting that the "no work, no pay" rule would apply.
"They can't expect us to pay them when they did not work," Mbeki said in Xhosa, according to his spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo.
And in a scathing attack on educators, Mbeki said he hoped protesting teachers would remember the many other challenges facing the country.
Acknowledging that teachers deserved better pay, he said that "children deserve better schools, they deserve books, our people deserve better health services".
"Our people need houses so they can get out of the slums ... Many people go to bed hungry. Many people die when they don't need to because we have not yet developed our health services to the level that it should be," Mbeki told thousands of supporters at the regional launch of the government's Extended Public Works Programme.
"I am saying that I hope as the teachers are demonstrating for better pay, they remember that there are many, many demands that face our people," Mbeki said.
In Pietermaritzburg, 20 000 striking teachers almost brought the city to a standstill on Thursday, and Education Minister Ina Cronje was forced to rush to the provincial capital, from Durban, to receive a memorandum from the leadership of Sadtu, after it refused to give it to Simon Nyawuza, an education department official.
Union spokesperson Dan Mabuyakhulu said he was confident the department would act promptly. "She has to listen because if she doesn't there will be a strike."
The Association of Professional Educators in KZN said it did not support the march, but it was demanding a salary increase of seven percent, the addressing of salary backlogs and a better housing allowance.
Cosatu, in response to Mbeki's remarks, said Thursday's protests were lawful because the government had declared a dispute in wage talks.
Cosatu spokesperson Tony Erenreich argued that the current offer was "way below" increases for managers and directors of parastatals, as well as MPs and councillors.
"If anybody must take responsibility for the protest action, it is government ... if government is holding out to such slave wages, then private sector companies are going to do the same," Erenreich said.