Unionised workers are set to join striking public servants in South Africa today in a sympathy protest that threatens to bring Africa's economic powerhouse to a standstill.
Tens of thousands of municipal workers from rubbish collectors to licensing department clerks, and others, are expected to boycott work to participate in marches and protests in Johannesburg, Cape Town and other major cities.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which represents the bulk of government workers who walked off the job last week, has called the strike to press the government into meeting its demands for a 10 per cent wage hike for public sector workers.
It predicted a huge turnout that would show labour's resolve in its showdown with President Thabo Mbeki's government.
"It's going to be a total shutdown," Willie Madisha, COSATU's president, said yesterday after union and government negotiators failed to break the impasse.
The public service unions had initially demanded a 12-per cent pay increase. The government has countered with a 6.5 per cent wage hike but suggested it is willing to go as high as 7.25 per cent.
Authorities have dispatched the police and army to keep hospitals, schools and other key facilities open, pledging to maintain essential services and prevent violence from erupting on the picket lines and in the streets.
Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said contingency measures were in place to minimise the impact of today's demonstrations.
The government has also begun firing nurses, teachers and other public servants whom it says are breaking the law by not reporting for work and has threatened to begin docking the wages of others doing likewise. Workers deemed to be essential to the functioning of the state, such as the police, healthcare workers and emergency services personnel, are prohibited by law from joining the strike.