Madam Deputy Speaker, the public servants' strike cannot continue. It is crippling our country. We want our teachers back in our schools teaching our children. We want our nurses back in our hospitals saving lives. It is totally unacceptable that after eight months of negotiations we are standing in front of a wall. The government has negotiated in bad faith.
I just cannot understand how it is not possible to talk to people within your own movement and try and find a solution. By refusing to pay public servants a decent wage, you are destroying your own vision of a developmental state. Government and unions must now come to the fore and back positions to settle. The ID is suggesting that they must settle at 9%.
The government must use some of the extra millions that it has raised in revenue to finance this. The unions must also accept that the 9% is part of their substantive conditions of employment and not just across the board. Lastly, Madam Speaker, I call on Parliament to look at a structural problem. The structural problem is this; that in March we adopt the Budget where that increase is already worked in. So, by the time they start with negotiations, there is already an agreed amount. It is a structural problem that we, as Parliament, have to look at. Thank you.