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It with deep regret and grave concern that the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry notes that trade unions have rejected the revised public service pay offer. The current spate of strikes and threats of strikes that, in addition to the public service workers', include certain sectors in the retail industry, the motor industry and local government workers in the water industry, and the ripple effects for other sectors, leave a large proportion of the South African economy unproductive.

The benefits that South Africa should have gained from the successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup are being seriously eroded by the current activities of labour. There appears to be scant concern for the negative impact that the present tide of protest action has on the South African economy and the ripple effect that these actions are bound to have on economic growth, employment, job creation and both domestic and foreign direct investment.

SACCI recognises the right of workers to "down tools", but the strategy of threatening to involve the private sector in the public sector strike is flawed on a number of fronts:
• It signals the lack of impact that the strike is having on public sector service continuity.
• It shows that since the action is not achieving labour's desired outcome, they are trying to implement a strategy to bring the entire economy to a halt.
• Since the private sector is not the prime target of the strike it is being unfairly prejudiced by the action.
• The culture of entitlement that is ingrained in the action demonstrates a total lack of concern for the country, for economic growth, for job retention and creation and for investment.
• While the private sector can obtain court orders to prevent sympathy strikes, it cannot force workers to be productive.

Notwithstanding the widespread protest action, business continues to operate and the "job still gets done" which provides strong evidence of the resilience of the South African economy to cope with adversity.