SowetanLive reports that while the national strike by the Public Servants Association (PSA) disrupted services at government offices last week, it seems to have made little impact at Beitbridge and Lebombo borders, which are SA’s busiest exit and entry points.

Government workers affiliated to PSA took to the streets on Thursday demanding a 10% wage hike from their employer. Their downing of tools saw several offices – mainly home affairs, labour and traffic departments – being closed for several hours. There were reports of long queues of trucks forming at the Lebombo gate in Mpumalanga. When Sowetan visited both borders at the weekend its seemed to be business as usual except for glitches caused by loadshedding in Beitbridge near Musina, Limpopo. On Friday, trucks and cars were frequently passing through the gates between Zimbabwe and SA without hindrance. Most locals explained that there had been a slight delay on Thursday morning due to a power outage but after 9am it was business as usual, with travellers from both sides going through. There was also little impact in Lebombo near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga. “We were told that our passports could not be stamped and processed because of a problem with the system and we had to wait for a while. But to be honest I have not seen any problems since then,” street hawker Johannes Mariba said.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mandla Khoza & Zoe Mahopo at SowetanLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page