Strikers at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg were attacked by South African police using water cannon and rubber bullets last week. On Saturday, the government won an injunction banning the strike by civil servants and insisting they return to work immediately. The government says that it will impose a settlement on the civil servants if they refuse. Military personnel have been drafted into the hospitals.

The strike by more than a million South African civil servants, including hospital workers, teachers, customs officials, government clerical officers, court staff, police and prison staff, has brought workers into direct collision with the government and their own trade unions, which are part of the tripartite alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. Union leaders delayed the civil servants’ annual pay claim until after the World Cup in deference to the wishes of the government. Now that the international spotlight is off South Africa, the civil servants have been subjected to state violence, even though their 8.6 percent pay claim is comparable to that which other sectors have already won.

Media reports have vilified the strikers, and government ministers have used deliberately inflammatory language. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi accused the strikers of “murder”. He asked, “We have demonstrated our humanity during the World Cup. Why now are people losing their humanity and prepared to murder?” Full story