Government silent on public service strike offer

"We just don't want to say anything at this stage," said government spokesman Themba Maseko.

"Minister of Public Service and Administration [Richard Baloyi] has been consulting with union leaders with a view to finding a settlement," the government said in an earlier statement.

"Government is committed to finding a solution that is acceptable to all the parties.

"Such a solution will be tabled at the Public Sector Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) for approval.

"The PSCBC will convene once the parties have found a solution, which may be as early as this evening."

On Monday, President Jacob Zuma instructed the parties to regroup around the negotiating table to find a way of ending the strike.

"The president gave a mandate to the ministers to immediately go back to the negotiating table," said his spokesman Zizi Kodwa.

"This follows a meeting the president held with ministers over the weekend, which assessed the strike by public servants and its impact to the country as a whole."

Zuma expressed concern at the effect the strike was having on poor people who relied on public services such as hospitals, and at its affect on goals set to improve the declining matric pass rate.

The ILC hoped a "reasonable offer" would be made, its chairman Chris Klopper said on Monday.

The ILC was "grateful" that sanity seemed to have prevailed "at long last".

Klopper said Baloyi had requested a meeting which would take place at the Education Labour Relations Council at 4pm.

He said the ILC would meet with the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) at 5pm and would meet with the PSCBC at 6pm.

Klopper said shortly before 4pm that the ILC had not yet received a new offer.

"The minister requested the meeting, so we are not sure exactly what the minister wants to tell us," he said.

Unions are demanding an 8.6 percent increase and a R1000 a month housing allowance. The government is offering a seven percent increase and a R700 allowance.

The 13-day strike has crippled many public hospitals and disrupted schooling.

In KwaZulu-Natal on Monday a stand-in nurse was kidnapped, allegedly by strikers who wanted other nurses to leave their posts at the KwaDukuza Hospital.