The South African government has increased its wage offer to more than a million striking public sector¹ workers.

南非政府同意一百多万名举行罢工的国营部门职工提出的加薪要求。

disarray²" src="http://www.enread.com/upimg/allimg/100901/4_100901063907_1.jpg" width="304" height="171" />
With teachers and nurses on strike, schools and hospitals have been in disarray

President Jacob Zuma had called for fresh attempts at reconciliation³（和解，调和） as the two-week long strike has seen many schools and hospitals grind to a halt.

After a night of tough negotiations⁴, government representatives raised their pay offer to 7.5%.

The unions have been demanding 8.6% and are expected to vote on Tuesday night on whether to accept the new offer.

'Victory point?'

Zwelenzima Vavi, secretary general of the main trade union（工会） federation⁵, Cosatu, told the BBC his team had fought hard to push the government offer up to 8%.

He said it would be up to the unions' members to decide whether it was acceptable.

"We fought very hard last night and this morning it was not possible... I guess it will take quite a week or two of the same scale of the strike to get the government to move," he said.

"The question that our members now have to answer is: is it necessary - considering all related matters - or is it at the point of victory at this particular point?"

The strike has had a crippling（造成严重后果的） affect especially on hospitals, where army medics（医护人员） and volunteers are caring for patients.

Before this latest round of negotiations, Cosatu had threatened a one-day general strike on Thursday if the wage demand of 8.6% was not met, said the BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg.

About a million civil servants（公务员） are already on strike, but Cosatu's total affiliated⁶（附属的，有关联的） membership is double that.

It is not yet clear whether they will go ahead with that threat, our correspondent says.

Mr Zuma's call to revive（使复兴，使苏醒） talks was driven by politics as much as economics, she added.

He has been stung by criticism from striking workers that he has been on a trade mission to China - while nurses, teachers and other civil servants have been on the streets demanding more pay.

The president needs to restore relations with the unions, his key power base, ahead of a policy conference of the major ruling party, the African National Congress, in three weeks' time, Karen Allen added.