On
3rd Degree tonight, 7 September 2010:
Episode Title: Strike-Out
Teaser ...Just over a month after we hosted the hugely successful soccer world cup, South Africa is in disarray. The image of a stable investment destination has been tarnished by weeks of violent protest and deadlocked wage negotiations.
Public sector strikers have all but closed down hospital and schools. Matriculants have been left in the lurch by their teachers, and cannot write their preliminary exams.
Nurses have abandoned their patients - in one case premature twins were left to die, and in another, a mother had to give birth in a parking lot when she was turned away from a public hospital.
There is a huge gap between what teachers and medics earn in the public sector and what they earn in the private sector. The government says it does not have the money to meet workers’ demands, yet many in the top echelons splurged millions on world cup tickets, stay in luxury hotels for lengthy periods and drive only the best cars - all at the tax payers’ expense.
3rd Degree counts the cost of the strike and the long-term effects it will have on South Africa.
3rd Degree is on e.tv on Tuesdays at 21h30.