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News24 reports that government is spending billions of rands on salaries for suspended officials in national and provincial departments.
By January 2021, a total of 6,344 public servants across the country were "actively" on suspension with full pay pending the finalisation of their disciplinary cases. Salary expenditure for suspended officials for the current 2020-21 financial year amounted to over R2 billion by the end of January. During the 2019-20 financial year, in excess of R2.4 billion was spent on salaries for suspended officials. This emerged in Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu’s reply to a written parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Mimmy Martha Gondwe. Mchunu said there were 292 officials in provincial departments across the country currently on suspension, while there were 6,052 officials on suspension at national government departments. More than 3,000 officials were on suspension for disciplinary offences not identified or indicated. In some instances, officials had been suspended for to up 21 months. Asked about measures put in place to ensure that a suspended official from one department was unable to get employment at another until his/her disciplinary case was finalised, Mchunu indicated: "In January 2021, a revised Z83 form (application for employment form) was introduced which amongst others addresses the issue of employees trying to escape disciplinary procedures, as one question in the form requires the employee to indicate if he or she is facing disciplinary charges. After a person is employed and it is discovered that she/he lied on the application form, the person will be dismissed.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jason Felix at News24
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