By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — Angry public servants in what is left of South Africa's discredited system of ethnic "homelands" are continuing to press their demands militantly. Workers in the health services of KwaZulu, Transkei, Lebowa and Venda are spearheading the strike action.
In recent months virtually all the homelands have been in turmoil. The "independent" states of Bophuthatswana and Ciskei collapsed after their people rose in revolt to demand reincorporation into South Africa and free political activity. Public servants demanding wage increases and assurances that their pension savings were secure played a key role in both instances.
The remaining bantustans — "independent" Venda and Transkei, and "self-governing" Lebowa, QwaQwa, KwaNdebele, KwaNgwane, KwaZulu and Gazankulu — have not escaped the upsurge. In late March, the Transitional Executive Council appointed two administrators to run Lebowa, in the northern Transvaal, after strikes by public servants led to the virtual collapse of services. Under TEC instruction, SADF troops entered the capital, Lebowakgomo. Throughout February and March, a strike wave swept Venda and QwaQwa.
KwaZulu and Natal, Venda, Lebowa, Transkei and KwaNdebele have been hit by strikes by nurses, ambulance workers, teachers, and civil servants. Hospitals in KwaZulu, Transkei, Lebowa and Venda have been forced to close as nurses demand higher pay. Strikers in the Venda capital, Thohoyandou, have occupied the health department building. Health services in KwaZulu have been stopped by a strike of ambulance and health workers. Teachers and civil servants in Umlazi, Natal, struck on April 11 demanding that the TEC take over the KwaZulu administration of Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi.
In Lebowa, 30,000 public servants are on strike demanding wage increases. In Bisho, Ciskei, student nurses are on strike. Police in KwaNdebele, members of the progressive Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, returned to work on April 12 after they won overtime payments.
On April 12, the TEC called on public servants not to strike in the run-up to the April 27 elections. Discussions will be held with trade unions. ANC TEC representative Cyril Ramaphosa said the TEC would ask workers "to refrain from any action, particularly strike action, that would benefit those who want to disrupt the election". SACP TEC delegate Joe Slovo said the decision did not detract from the TEC's sympathy for the "justified grievances" of the workers in the homelands.
But COSATU general secretary Sam Shilowa said that COSATU would not support a moratorium on strike action. COSATU had fought "tooth and nail" for the right to strike to be included in South Africa's interim constitution. Shilowa said that COSATU recognises "that the success of the election hinges on the presence of key public sector workers, but as a matter of principle we believe that whether there is a state of emergency or not, the fundamental right of workers to strike must not be tampered with ... A limited moratorium of a few weeks has the tendency to become a moratorium for a few months, or even years."
Instead of declaring a moratorium, the TEC should tell workers how it proposed to address workers' grievances and underwrite guarantees to address them after the election. The TEC "needs to send out a clear, unambivalent message as to how the health workers' grievances will be dealt with", COSATU said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Transkei has voluntarily moved to reintegrate itself into South Africa. Military leader General Bantu Holomisa has aligned himself with the ANC since its unbanning in 1990 and is an ANC candidate for the National Assembly.