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Performance bonuses paid to national and provincial government employees rise sharply

Details

southafricalogoBusinessLive reports that national and provincial departments have paid out 70% more than the previous year on performance bonuses to employees, despite SA battling worsening levels of debt, low growth and downgrades by two major ratings agencies over that period.  

Of the R2.6bn paid out in the 2018/2019 financial year, R629m was spent by national departments and about R2bn by provincial governments.  A total of R1.5bn was spent in the previous year.  Finance minister Tito Mboweni has highlighted the need for a reduction in the growth of the wage bill — which consumes about 35% of the national budget — to achieve the government’s fiscal consolidation targets of reducing the budget deficit and debt.  Details of the bonus payments were revelaed by public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu in a written reply to a parliamentary question.  The minister said performance bonuses were awarded to eligible employees “who receive a performance rating of significantly above expectation”.  They are granted by the minister or the director-general of the department concerned.  The DA’s Leon Schreiber criticised the fact that among those receiving performance bonuses were government officials in management positions who received an average annual salary of R1.4m.  But Tahir Maepa of the Public Servants Association dismissed the DA’s objections and said the amount paid on performance bonuses to high performers among all public servants, from cleaners to senior managers, was so small compared with the total public sector wage bill of about R627bn that it was not worth talking about.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive


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