South Africa teachers in all out strike
Hundreds of thousands of civil servants went on indefinite strike over pay in South Africa yesterday. The country's teaching union, the biggest in the public sector, said all its 240,000 members walked out.
Trials were postponed as court staff joined the strike.
Unions want an 8.6 per cent rise. The government is offering 7 per cent. Public service minister Richard Baloyi said it cannot afford more.
In his budget speech earlier this year, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that after the global recession, the government needed to spend money creating new jobs, instead of giving higher wages to those already working.
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Hide AdHe said 900,000 jobs were lost last year in a country where a quarter of the work force is unemployed. South Africa's public service strikes are often characterised by violent protests. A strike in 2007 lasted a month.