The government raised its pay offer to civil servants on Thursday to try to avert the strike, but it was quickly rejected by the unions.
“More than 1.3 million public servants will on Tuesday take part in marches and demonstrations right through the country leading to a total shutdown of the public service,” the largest umbrella labor group, COSATU, said in a statement.
“There is a very strong possibility that by the end of the week, we will be embarking on a larger strike,” said Sizwe Pamla, spokesman for NEHAWU, one of the COSATU unions.
Analysts expect more sparring in the coming days but say a deal tilted in the unions’ favor will be reached to head off a repeat of the mass action by civil servants three years ago that damaged the economy.
Workers who have threatened to strike include customs and immigration officers, police, health care staff and teachers.
The ruling African National Congress has a longstanding alliance with organized labor forged in their struggle to end apartheid and has almost always bowed to union demands.
President Jacob Zuma, who relied on organized labor to rise to the country’s highest post, will be under pressure to find a solution that satisfies unions or he could face a backlash at the ANC’s policy-setting meeting in September, which is one of the party’s most important events.
Sakhela Buhlungu, an expert on organized labor at the University of Johannesburg, said the government could try to reach a political solution by talking to union leaders.
He said the government had misread the amount of anger among unions who feel Zuma has not done enough to help them.
“The strike will force them (the government) to scratch around and find money elsewhere,” Buhlungu said.
The Public Service Ministry had said in a statement it was prepared to increase salaries by 7 percent, after previously offering 6.5 percent.
Union officials said the government had increased its offer of a 630 rand ($87) monthly housing allowance by 20 rand.
Unions have been demanding a wage increase of 8.6 percent — double the current rate of inflation — and a housing allowance of 1,000 rand, which would put pressure on the state budget.
Unions need to convince the public that civil servants are underpaid and deserve the raises or risk losing support from taxpayers who feel the money they pay government for services is being wasted on needless salary hikes, analysts say.
The government says the combined demands amount to a rise of 9 percent and make it all but impossible to fulfill a commitment to bring the budget deficit down from 6.7 percent of gross domestic product.
Spending on personnel is the largest sector of the budget.
