S.Africa Unions- No Deal On Public Servants Strike

South Africa's COSATU labour federation said on Friday negotiators had failed to reach a deal.

South Africa's COSATU labour federation said on Friday negotiators had failed to reach a deal with the government to end a three-week public servants' strike.

"The majority of Public Service unions ... agreed that they cannot at this stage sign any agreement with the employer," the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said in a statement following talks with government representatives.

The unions said, however, that the government had tabled a new offer and they would have 21 days to consider it. They said union representatives would meet again on Sunday to begin this process.

"In the meantime, the strike continues," COSATU President Willie Madisha told the SAPA news agency.

The COSATU statement dashed hopes of a quick resolution to the strike, which has crippled schools and hospitals across the country and revealed stark divisions between the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its labour allies.

But it left open the possibility that the government's latest offer -- details of which were not immediately available -- could be accepted by union members perhaps as early as Sunday.

Labour officials have been consulting their members to decide on a response to the state's latest reported pay rise offer of 7.5 percent. Unions are demanding a minimum rise of 9 percent.

South Africa's economy -- the continent's biggest -- is booming but civil servants complain their wages can barely keep pace with inflation, currently at 6.3 percent.

Civil servants remain defiant, but the mass action has taken a heavy economic toll on their lives and some South Africans say they have lost loved ones because state hospitals are paralysed.

Hundreds of thousands of workers have taken part in the strike, which has demonstrated workers' power ahead of a leadership congress this year that may see the ANC name a successor to President Thabo Mbeki.

A South African labour court ruled on Friday that police officers cannot join the strike but said non-essential staff in the force could take part in the job boycott, which unions bill as the largest ever in post-apartheid South Africa.