NATIONAL NEWS - “The two percent that the government is offering is the strongest form of provocation we have seen in the democratic order.”
That’s according to South African Police Union (Sapu) national spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale.
This as the chairperson of the Plessislaer community policing forum Sifiso Mavundla on Monday said the planned national strike by Sapu will be disastrous if the government does not meet the employees’ demands.
Mavundla said in his area of jurisdiction, crime levels have “skyrocketed” — as indicated in the recent crime stats.
Plessislaer is one of the leading areas with murder, and that has been proven by the crime stats released recently. All essential services, basically, should not be allowed to go to a point where the employees resort to strike action because the government doesn’t want to meet their demands, especially when the demands are valid.
KZN police stations with high murder cases
According to the quarterly crime stats released by Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday, reflecting on crimes that occurred during the first quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year, between April and June, Umlazi police station followed by Plessislaer had the highest number of murder cases in the country with Inanda as number four.
Sapu national spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale said if their members vote for strike action, then it will happen.
Sapu, South African Federation Trade Unions (Saftu) and affiliated unions in the public service have been engaged in wage negotiations with the government, where a 10% baseline wage demand was made at the inception of the negotiations.
Thobakgale said the employer had placed on record the final offer of a measly two percent on the baseline with the cash gratuity. Police had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.
