Government may have jumped the gun by announcing that a wage agreement was in place with the majority of public sector unions whereas most unions were still in consultation with members on the latest offer.

Kenny Govender, deputy director general in the Department of Public Service and Administration, yesterday said in Pretoria: "There is an in principle agreement in place. We are in the process of getting signatures and we hope to get that very soon."

But some members of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), told Sowetan yesterday they had not been consulted about the settlement. Several members said they were being coerced by shop stewards to take the offer as going on strike would not achieve anything.

"Normally they call a [regional] meeting to give us a report back and for a mandate but this time we are briefed at school level, where there are no numbers to reject the offer. The attitude we are getting is that the government is committed too much with the free higher education issue therefore even if we soldier on, there is no hope," a teacher from KwaMhlanga said.

But Sadtu spokeswoman, Nomusa Cembi, said they were waiting for a mandate from the members. "It will be subjective because some are saying [on social media] that they were not being consulted when it is actually them who do not attend meetings."

The salary adjustment on the table for the period April 1 2018 to March 31 2019, is that the three-year deal will see employees on salary levels 1-12 get an increase of between 7.7% and 12.6%.

Barries Barnard, chief negotiator for SA Police Union, said though they did not get what they wanted, they had managed to score major victories and were happy with what they managed to achieve for their members.