The real aftermath of the civil servants’ strike
All protocol observed. I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for staying off the radar for so long. So to all the 4 people that have been reading my blog during its most famous days, I hope that you will remain loyal. I think I had a writers’ block.
So the strike is keeping everybody on their toes, literally. As Trevor Noah put “South Africans are the only people that sing and dance when they are angry”. It could be worse, because, we could be in Mozambique or somewhere else where they riot when they are angry.
But here is my theory, not forgetting that I barely passed maths in high school and have yet to complete my BA degree. My income per day all inclusive = R700,00. The union is fighting for R300 real money increase for housing allowance per month. And 8.6 % increase to the rest of my package per month = R1260 approximately.
This give my an increase of about R1560 per month. Which seems like a workable increase… until I give you the rest of my theory.
The government has adopted a no work no pay policy. R700 x 18 days so far = R12600
Basically you end up owing the employer a lot more than the increase you are fighting for. So the deductions on ones salary for the days that one was busy striking will be equal to the amount of money that one was supposed to get after negotiations. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
Who is fooling who?
I’m not a public servant, but I stand in full support of the strike. Senior officials need to forget everything else for a minute and put themselves in other peoples shoes for a bit. And see if a take home pay of R5000 will take them far. No bank will give you a bond and the same government will not approve your application for an RDP house because you work. WTF?
Mind you I have not even started to go into the factors that worry me even more. Such as the number of TB patients that were not able to access treatment, iseeadisasterafterthestrike. Also the number of sick people who had to struggle to get help…I could go on the whole day.
