Cosatu coy on World Cup strike

Johannesburg - South Africa's powerful trade union federation on Thursday threatened strikes before October over big electricity price rises and declined to say whether action could start before the soccer World Cup in June.

"The last thing we want to do is disrupt the World Cup but our interest is bigger than the World Cup," Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told reporters.

Cosatu, consumers and businesses have condemned the power regulator's decision to grant state utility Eskom average annual price increases of more than 25 percent over the next three years to fund a badly needed increase in capacity.

Vavi told reporters the federation would consult its members in March and April to discuss protest action.

Cosatu - which has almost two million paid up members - has already filed notice of a strike in October, which unions are obliged to do under South African labour law, but Vavi said they may file a notice for earlier action.

"We might even be on strike before that," he said.

Any strike before or during the soccer World Cup finals could damage South Africa's hopes of using the biggest sporting event ever held on the continent to showcase the country abroad and draw in tourists and investment in the longer term.

Anger is widespread in South Africa over the power price increases, which will mean a rise of 24.8 percent this year and even more in subsequent years.

The increases fell short of Eskom's request for a 35 percent hike annually over the next three years.

But critics say the hikes could lead to increased inflation expectations, big real wage increases, and further slow the recovery in private business growth and the household sector after the first recession in nearly two decades.

Eskom wants to raise R461bn to build more plants and avoid a repeat of blackouts that crippled the vital mining industry in 2008.

Its chief executive Mpho Makwana told Reuters in London on Thursday the lights would stay on during the soccer finals.

"As far as the World Cup is concerned we are secure," he said.

- Sapa