Municipal workers protest in Cape Town

Municipal workers shook shovels and held plastic bins above their heads as they protested for higher wages outside Cape Town city council offices.

The workers, who want an improvement on a six percent wage offer, left a trail of white paper as they marched to the city's offices.

"You can't sweep the paper easily," a man in a red SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) shirt said.

"You must bend to pick it up but it will be harder for them to pick up."

There was however little sign of the mass littering that characterised Samwu's previous protests for better wages.

A solitary bin burned outside the City Hall while most other bins appeared to have been stored away by the city in anticipation of the protest.

Police in black riot gear stood watch in front of a wall of barbed wire outside the civic centre as the protesters sang and beat rubbish bins with sticks.

Traffic on most of Cape Town's streets was flowing freely by early Monday afternoon.