Civil Servants' Strike Intensifies in S. Africa

Transportation, Hospitals, Schools Affected

JOHANNESBURG, June 13 -- Tens of thousands of government workers on Wednesday intensified their biggest strike since the end of apartheid, closing schools, snarling transportation systems and virtually shutting down sections of South Africa's largest cities.

Workers reduced their wage demands but upped the impact of their strike by winning support from other unions and pressuring private schools and businesses -- many of which feared violence -- to close for the day.

The strikers are particularly frustrated that a government controlled by the African National Congress, a longtime political ally of the labor movement, has vigorously resisted their demands. Much of the anger has been targeted at President Thabo Mbeki, who is struggling to win a third term as party president despite intense criticism from union leaders who say he has not done enough to improve the lives of poor and working-class South Africans.

Government officials have fired scores of nurses for not coming to work, and principals who closed their schools after threats of violence have been warned of possible disciplinary action. Union activists said the hard line was reminiscent of tactics used by the apartheid government before the arrival of multiracial democracy in 1994.

"The government doesn't feel for the person," said Lorma Nkete, 49, a hospital clerical worker and union shop steward who marched in downtown Johannesburg on Wednesday. "We were thinking that because it is our government that they would be different."

For the first time since it began June 1, the strike reached into nearly every corner of South African life. Interruptions to bus, train and taxi service not only stranded non-striking workers in their homes but deprived Johannesburg's pampered and mostly white northern suburbs of many nannies and gardeners.

Newspapers and radio stations carried numerous reports of violence as well as medical emergencies that have gone untended as public and private hospitals operate at far below normal staffing levels. Police and soldiers have been deployed to control crowds of strikers.

The government initially offered 6 percent raises, about the rate of inflation in South Africa, but the unions demanded double that. Both sides have budged a bit since then, but talks, including a round Wednesday morning, have repeatedly broken down.

Analysts have blamed the intensity of the dispute on political maneuvering by Mbeki and others heading into a key party policy conference this month.

The new party president is scheduled to be elected in December, but crucial ideological battles already are underway.

In addition to the African National Congress, Mbeki's ruling coalition includes the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, organizers of the strike. Tension among the members of the alliance has risen steadily throughout Mbeki's administration as he has followed generally cautious fiscal policies.

"The ANC traditionally has been able to be all things to all people," said Karima Brown, political editor for the South African newspaper Business Day. "The unions are calling its bluff."

Mbeki, who is in his second five-year term, is prohibited from running for another term as president of the nation when elections come in 2009. But he can seek another five-year term as president of the party, and winning would give him enhanced power in choosing his successor and likely enduring influence even after he leaves government.

If Mbeki loses his bid in December to remain party president, whoever wins will become the heir apparent to the national presidency as well. The African National Congress has support from about two of every three South Africans.