ANC Power Struggle Looms As More Join South Africa's Strike

South African trade unions have launched one of the biggest national strikes of the post-apartheid era in a move widely seen as spearheading the left's challenge to win control of the ruling African National Congress ahead of next year's presidential election. The unions called out hundreds of thousands of members in support of public sector workers who have already been on strike for a fortnight, forcing schools to close and hospitals to treat only emergency cases.

Municipal workers joined the strike yesterday, shutting down rubbish collection, maintenance of power supplies and public transport.

The unions wanted a 12% wage increase but have lowered their demand to 10%. President Thabo Mbeki's government yesterday increased its offer to 7.25%, well below inflation. Striking workers joined protests in major cities including Johannesburg, where some held up signs reading: "The ANC government is a replica of the then apartheid government."

Millions of children have been kept out of school just ahead of their exams. The government has fired hundreds of striking nurses and sent soldiers into some hospitals to work in the wards and protect staff who have not joined the protest.

Critics say the strike has already cost lives after paramedics attending to accident victims were turned away from some hospitals, and a baby died after nurses refused to allow its mother into a hospital.

Underpinning the strike is the looming power struggle for control of the ANC at its national congress in December ahead of next year's general election. South Africa's trades union confederation, Cosatu, which has 1.8 million members, is part of the ruling alliance with the ANC and the Communist party. Its leadership has fallen out badly with Mr Mbeki over economic policy, accusing him of enriching a small black elite at the expense of the majority of poor.

Public sector workers are a prime example of qualified workers who survive on low pay - nurses earn as little as £250 a month.

Jovial Rantao, political columnist for Johannesburg's Star newspaper, described the strike as a political strategy beyond pay issues. "This is war, a show of force by the unions after 12 years of being bludgeoned into submission in the ruling alliance," he wrote.