Fin24 reports that the SA Revenue Service (SARS) announced on Tuesday that its operations had been affected by industrial action on the part of two unions and that it had been forced to close 18 branches in seven provinces around the country.

The strike comes at a sensitive time for operations at SARS, as tax season started at the beginning of July. The Public Servants Association (PSA) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) announced on Monday that they would be resuming their strike at SARS after they had suspended their industrial action for two months during further wage talks. The unions are demanding a 7% increase in wages. SARS has floated the idea of channelling its savings from 2021 towards wages. But the unions said this would only add up to a 1.39% increase and they rejected the offer. SARS said it was "empathetic" to the financial position of employees, but added that it was dependent on an annual allocation made through a process managed by National Treasury so the wage demand of labour of CPI plus 7% was simply unaffordable until SARS received further funding. PSA spokesperson Reuben Maleka claimed that the strike action had "fully shut down" border gates and SARS branch offices. Nehawu spokesperson Lwazi Nkolisi said the strike action at SARS had kicked off "quite well" with members coming out in numbers at demonstrations across various SARS offices.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24
• Lees ook, Talle kantore van inkomstediens gesluit oor staking, by Maroela Media

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