STRIKING municipal workers countrywide went on a trashing spree for the second day running yesterday and promised the same until they get a 15percent pay increase.

STRIKING municipal workers countrywide went on a trashing spree for the second day running yesterday and promised the same until they get a 15percent pay increase.

In Johannesburg, thousands of strikers handed a memorandum to the SA Local Government Association (Salga), the umbrella body of municipalities.

Members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union started their march at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown and upended rubbish bins and terrorised passersby on their way to Salga's offices in Braamfontein.

In Nelspruit, municipal workers continued to strew rubbish on the citys streets, forcing motorists to swerve around huge piles of garbage.

In KwaZulu-Natal the strike of municipal workers spread to even the most distant rural areas of the province.

Samwu's provincial secretary Jaycee Ncanana said the union had taken its protests to the rural areas to demonstrate the workers' solidarity.

Protesters also trashed Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal.

Samwu president Petrus Mashishi said they had been offered a 13percent wage increase.

The unions are demanding a 15percent pay increase and a minimum wage of R5000. The workers are also demanding a minimum housing allowance of R3000 a month and that municipalities fill all vacant posts.