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Oliphant heading for talks with Numsa, Seifsa

Cape Town - Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant will meet Numsa and employer body Seifsa for talks to spare the economy another protracted strike, she said on Wednesday.

"I believe that after this meeting it is correct for me to meet with both Numsa and Seifsa, precisely because we have intervened and when they were going back to report to their members, everybody was saying that there was a possibility of the ending of this strike," she told reporters in Pretoria.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) went on strike on July 1. It initially wanted a 15% increase, which it has subsequently reduced to 10%.

On Tuesday the employer body, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa), announced that it had withdrawn its final offer after Numsa rejected it.

Said Oliphant: "And therefore I have to meet with them so that they can explain what has happened or what went wrong, and look at possibilities of really coming to the table and finalising this issue because as a country we can't really afford a prolonged strike."

Oliphant described the steel and engineering industry as the "key, critical sector when it comes to the infrastructure of this country" and added that the strike could damage the motor industry.

"I think it is going to be affected very deeply, and that this is why we have to intervene as the government so that this thing can come to an end."

On Tuesday, Seifsa said it had revoked its latest offer, which included a 10% increase for this year, after Numsa rejected it.

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