FIVE PUBLIC sector trade unions have taken the South African government to court to try to force it to pay salary increases agreed as part of a three-year wage deal, court papers showed on Friday.
The government told unions early this year that it could not afford the final year of the wage deal struck in 2018.
It kept civil servants’ salaries flat in April, the first month of the new fiscal year, as the cost of fighting the new coronavirus piled further pressure on already stretched state finances.
Many South Africans backed the decision not to increase civil servants’ pay, in the context of a major economic crisis caused by COVID-19 that has left millions potentially facing hunger.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has earmarked 500 billion rand ($30 billion) for relief, of which nearly a fifth is for unemployment benefits and social grants for the poor. Public sector wages make
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