Miners head to work at the Khutala Colliery mine in Kendal, an hour's drive from Johannesburg, in an area known as South Africa's coal belt
(Representative Image) AFP

Thousands of public sector workers in South Africa went on strike on Thursday after talks with the government over wage hikes hit a dead end.

The situation is worrying and threatens to severely disrupt the public services system in the country.

The strike is being led by the Public Servants Association (PSA), which has over 235,000 members from all kinds of blue-collar professions including immigration workers, nurses and police officers. The protesters picketed outside the National Treasury offices in Pretoria, waving placards that read "public servants are bleeding" along with putting forward a list of demands.

Municipal employees were also among the protesters and led a march to the city mayor's office.

"In the past two years we have been affected by Covid, food (costs are) increasing on daily basis... but you find that the same workers are still earning the same salary in the past five years," AFP quoted Mish Mdlalose, a municipal worker, as saying.

In a statement, the PSA said that "irresponsible action has further damaged the already fragile relations and severe trust deficit" between the government and unions.

The union was in talks with the labour ministry for a 6.5 percent wage hike, but the discussions have hit a roadblock after Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi declared last week that he would unilaterally implement a three percent wage hike across all professions.

On Wednesday, the PSA warned that the strike would "have a serious impact" on the transport, home affairs, and border control departments of the country.

In a statement, it said that Nxesi's "irresponsible action has further damaged the already fragile relations and severe trust deficit" between unions and the government.

In October, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced in his October mini-budget speech 3.3 percent increase in wages was all the government could afford.

He had further said that the South African government won't budge despite the pressure from the workers

The increase of 3.3% is paltry in the sense that it weighs well below South Africa's inflation rate which peaked at 7.8 percent in the month of July.

Also, the economy of the country recently suffered a blow when port firms and railway workers launched a weeks-long strike which affected the exports of fresh fruit and minerals.