The two-day protest strike against South African government plans to privatise R150-billion worth of the state-owned or controlled assets ended yesterday with opposing sides - the ANC-led government and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) - each claiming victory..
But Cosatu, which was formally backed by the South African Communist Party but not by communists in President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet, failed to bring the economy to a halt as its leaders had threatened to do in their pre-strike rhetoric.
For that reason it would probably be more accurate to characterise the ANC-led government as a little bloodied but the winner on points.
There was no indication that the ANC had retreated from its public insistence that it would go ahead with the "restructuring of state assets"
This catch-all phrase includes options ranging from a full sell-off to private sector investors to partnerships with private entrepreneurs in which the South African government retains a controlling interest.
After the first day of the strike on Tuesday, Cosatu proclaimed that 65 per cent of the workforce had heeded its exhortations to support the protest.
The Cosatu spokesman, Mr Patrick Craven, reckoned it was at least as strong yesterday.
But there were areas in the major cities where there was no evidence either of protesters or of a general close-down.
The government estimated that striking workers accounted for about 30 per cent of the workforce
The Department of Public Service - under whose auspices public servant fall - stated that delivery of services was affected "to a very limited degree" by the strike.
A critical factor which suggests that the strike had failed to fulfil Cosatu's expectation was the high turn-out of workers for duty at state-owned or partially state-owned corporations.
As prime targets for privatisation, support for the strike - hardly higher than a quarter of the workforce at the corporation where the strike received strongest backing - should have been greater if workers felt as threatened by "restructuring" as trade union leaders insisted.
One labour analyst deduced that workers had a feeling in their boots that privatisation was inevitable.
They were thus not prepared to surrender two days of pay by striking.