Military will not strike: DoD

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The Department of Defence is dismissing claims that military personnel will be joining the public service strike. It was reacting to reports to that effect in today’s media. “These media reports are not true. The SANDF is continuing to provide support to government in line with the Constitution and the Defence Act, says the department.

DoD spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini said in a statement that the “SANDF is a responsible organisation and its members would not break the law or undermine the very Constitution they are supposed to defend. Therefore members of the SANDF will not join the strike as doing so will be going against the prescripts of the Constitution and the Defence Act.”

News24 reported SA National Defence Union (SANDU) spokesman Jeff Dubazana said the “problem is, if this problem [the public sector strike] is not solved, there’s a possibility that we might be seen as scab labour. We are not going to allow our workers to be seen in that particular fashion. That is why we are planning action.” He said the union would announce on Friday if it would take part in a secondary strike.

The military is however specifically excluded from the Labour Relations Act that governs industrial action. Any strike action would thus be necessarily unprotected and unlawful. The reports also come exactly a year after a riotous mutiny at the Union Buildings by SANDU in support of better pay and service conditions.

President Jacob Zuma has since doubled the pay of the lowest paid soldiers. Zuma and defence and military veterans minister Lindiwe Sisulu also announced an intent to de-unionise the military. Sisulu also announced a new dispensation for the armed forces, a commission to better service conditions and legislative changes. These are currently before Parliament.

Meanwhile, some 3000 soldiers and medics have been deployed to 47 hospitals across the country to assist patients during the public service strike. Cabinet last week instructed the military to render support to any government department that may require assistance during the public service strike.

Public sector strikes in SA tend to be violent and it is not the first time the military has been deployed to public hospitals to maintain basic services and prevent victimisation.

In another development, the police this morning obtained an interdict against the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, preventing them from inciting their membrs to join a week-old civil service strike. The police are regarded an essential service, as are health staff, who have ignored labour law on the matter.