(Photo Courtesy Kevin Roussel)

Johannesburg — PUBLIC Service Minister Richard Baloyi, born on Christmas Day, is not as giving as Santa Claus. Striking public servants have learnt this the hard way as Mr Baloyi has stood his ground by refusing to accede to their demands.

Public servants staying away from work for three weeks, abandoning classrooms and leaving patients to die have not been enough to convince Mr Baloyi to open his wallet. The strike by more than a million public service employees will enter its fourth week today despite repeated attempts to end the impasse.

Mr Baloyi has shown a willingness to push it. Last month, he threatened to unilaterally implement the offer government then had on the table, of a 7% increase and a R700 monthly housing allowance. "Our capacity to afford is exhausted. We have not emptied the envelope, we have broken it," he said. But after intervention by President Jacob Zuma last week, Mr Baloyi raised the offer to a 7,5% pay rise and an R800 housing allowance. He again said the government could not afford more .

This has angered striking workers, who are demanding an 8,6% increase and R1000 housing allowance, with some saying the offer was an insult to workers.

Whatever the outcome of the strike, it will help to build Mr Baloyi's public profile. And it might need building after his decision last year to give striking public-sector workers an average increase of 11,5%. It was a costly move that was three percentage points higher than the 8,5% mandated by a key committee of officials from the Treasury and Department of Public Service and Administration.

Trying to access Mr Baloyi's personal history is difficult . After a request from Business Day, his office sent out a profile on Friday stating that Mr Baloyi was born in Limpopo, but not where or when. Later, his spokeswoman, Lebogang Mafokosi, revealed he was born on Christmas Day, 52 years ago.

Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane was willing to share his experience of working with Mr Baloyi, saying: "I was the provincial secretary of what was known back then as a region. He (Mr Baloyi) was the secretary of the northeast region, now known as Mopani. He was a very serious, hard worker. He had extreme passion for his work."

According to Mr Chabane, Mr Baloyi served as mayor of Giyani in the transition period "around" 1994. "He is a very cool person when he deals with issues."

Another man who once interacted with Mr Baloyi, former Limpopo premier and African National Congress (ANC) chairman, and now Congress of the People leader in Limpopo, Sello Moloto , had little praise for his home boy. "He was never a person who would have been independent. He always tried to hide under powerful individuals such as Collins Chabane," he said.

Mr Chabane could not say how Mr Baloyi had performed in the positions he occupied in Limpopo . "Obviously when you deal with the ANC structures it may be difficult to point out one specific thing."

Mr Baloyi serves on the Limpopo ANC provincial executive committee. He was sent to Parliament in 1999, where he served on several portfolio committees, including those for public service and administration, rules, ethics and members' interests.

After the recall of former president Thabo Mbeki in 2008, Mr Baloyi was appointed to his present position and served under then president Kgalema Motlanthe.

He was retained in this position after last year's elections but, after a year in office, he is at loggerheads with his comrades in the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

Only time will tell if Christmas will come early for the strikers or if they will concede defeat.