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Johannesburg - There was no more room for manoeuvring in the government's wage offer to striking public servants, Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said on Friday.
"You know, if you revise, it is when you've got room to manoeuvre but if you don't have room to manoeuvre, you have no space to move to, what revision are we talking about?
"So, because even with this one, we indicated that we had to channel money that was meant for other service priorities in order to accommodate, in order to find a solution to save South Africa from this embarrassment that we are going through, from this frustration of innocent people that we are going through," Baloyi said on SABC radio.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions and the Independent Labour Caucus, jointly representing some 1.3 million workers, declared a "preliminary" rejection of the government's latest pay offer on Thursday.
The government revised its offer this week to a 7.5% salary increase and R800 monthly housing allowance and includes proposals on medical scheme payments and the minimum service level agreement.
Public servants, who have been on strike since August 18, were demanding an 8.6% increase and R1000 monthly housing allowance.
The national strike has severely disrupted state hospital services and schooling.
