ANA reports that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said in Parliament on Wednesday that government needed to implement further measures to contain the public sector wage bill, which to date, had “crowded out spending in other areas.”  

In his 2017/18 budget review speech to the National Assembly, he stated:  “Government is working to ensure that the current wage negotiations process results in a fair and sustainable agreement.  This process will require careful consideration from all stakeholders.”  Currently government is relying on the freezing of posts and on retirement to curb its spending on wages, which makes up 35.2% of total government spending.  Public sector wage talks started last year and were still ongoing at the time of the budget.  The last round of above inflation wage increases in 2015/16 wiped out government’s contingency reserve of R5 billion that financial year.

• Read this report in full at The Citizen

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