S. Africa gov’t urged to talk with unions

South Africa’s communists called on the ANC (African National Congress) government and the country’s unions over the weekend to “sit down and engage frankly” in order to resolve a three-week-long public sector strike.

The central committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) warned allies in the Tripartite Alliance (ANC, SACP, Congress of South African Trade Unions – COSATU) that “the longer it is prolonged the more everyone suffers and the danger of unbridgeable positions becoming entrenched.”

Its leadership also said the demands of the strikers were legitimate.

Noting that the “wage gap in the public sector between the highest paid echelons and the lowest is 91 to 1,” it urged ANC ministers to ensure that there is a “collective moratorium on salary increases” at the top.

The SACP CC also condemned “acts of gross indiscipline” on the part of some strikers, such as neglect of intensive care unit patients and physical threats against scabs, warning that this served to “detract from the legitimacy of the struggle.”

Reposted from Morning Star.

Photo: Public sector workers march in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug. 26 in a mass demonstration for higher wages. (AP/Themba Hadebe)