South African civil servants demonstrate in Durban, 13 June 2007. South Africa's longest-running strike in the post-apartheid era finally came to a halt when a majority of unions accepted a 7.5 percent pay offer from the government.[AFP]

Four weeks after hundreds of thousands of workers embarked on a stoppage that led to the closure of schools and widespread disruption in hospitals, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said all its members would now return to work.

"The public service trade unions, after full consultation with the membership, have unanimously agreed to call off the strike action which began on June 1," Noluthando Sibiya, president of the national education, health and allied workers union, said on behalf of the COSATU leadership.

"We pay tribute to all our members who displayed such self-sacrifice and heroism in their four-week fight for an improvement in their salaries and working conditions," she added to reporters after a meeting of union leaders near the capital Pretoria.

The move to end the strike was widely predicted after COSATU secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told health workers on Wednesday that the government's offer was "not bad" and they could not expect to have all their demands met.

The unions had demanded a 12 percent pay rise at the onset of the strike while the government initially refused to budge from its offer of six percent, around one percent below the annual rate of inflation.

COSATU said that the majority of unions had agreed to sign up to the government's offer which was formally placed on the table on June 22.

Others had still to consult their members while the main teachers union was not yet prepared to sign and "will be engaging with the government further".

Schooling will not be affected as teachers are currently on their winter holiday.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said in a brief statement that she would await the signature from the unions.

"Government as the employer acknowledges the calling-off of the strike action by public service unions and awaits a majority signature," she said.

The strike -- the longest and most widespread since the end of the whites-only apartheid regime in 1994 -- had a devastating effect, with schools closed and hospitals running skeleton services with the help of army medics.

The stoppage was also becoming increasingly embarrassing for the ruling African National Congress, overshadowing its ongoing policy conference.

The unions had been particularly angered by a government decision to issue dismissal notices to some health workers who had stayed away from hospitals in defiance of a court order.

But according to another union leader present at the talks, all the dismissal notices will be rescinded as part of the agreement.

"They will be reinstated as part and parcel of the agreement," Dave Balt, president of the national professional teachers' organisation of South Africa, told reporters.

Jackie Kelly, a Johannesburg-based labour specialist, said that the unions had reason to be happy with the outcome.

"The strike has gone as far as it can go. The unions have come out of it with a reasonable settlement, given the constraints" such as inflation, she told AFP.

"We can now breathe a sigh of relief. The government has moved quite considerably. There will now be labour peace and stability following the halt to the strike. This is a welcome development."

Sibiya however dangled the prospect of further worker unrest when she said the strike should galvanise other workers to pressure their employers.

"The strike will also have inspired other workers to demand that their employers improve their wages and working conditions and given them confidence that they can fight and win," she said.