State employees demand pay rise

TONGA – This past Friday Corridor Gazette received reports that people were being turned away from the Tonga Hospital by demonstrators outside the building.

This salary increase will be over and above all their other demands, which include increases in medical-aid contribution and housing allowances. However, the regional secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), Mr Mandla Nkosi, dismissed all allegations of people being turned away.

He said, “At no stage have workers barricaded the hospital, or tried to stop anyone entering or exiting the hospital. Workers are enforcing their legal rights as per the Labour Relations Act of protesting peacefully. They are protesting where they are working, because these workers are public servants and the hospital is also an area of employment. So they have protested here and moved to the circuit offices, there was no stage that the public was interrupted.”

Nkosi furthermore added that they wanted to get the public’s support.

“Because these are also members of the public, they also use these resources. So there was no incident that we witnessed that might indicate to us that there was a protest in the flow of traffic in and out of the hospital.”

According to finance minister, Mr Nhlanhla Nene, granting the 10 per cent increment would add R20 billion to the state’s current wage costs, which hadn’t been budgeted for.

“Given the current economic constraints, coupled with high government debt, there is limited scope to provide more resources for wages,” he said in a written response to a parliamentary earlier this year.

“Any deviation from consumer price, inflation-linked, cost-of-living adjustments cannot be financed through debt issuance and will therefore require either a reallocation of resources from other areas, or prompt a need to reduce government employment,” Nene said.

Employees have vowed to continue demonstrating outside state buildings until their demands are met.