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With monthly costs running into millions, government managing to cut down on employees on suspension

Details

southafricalogoIndependent Media reports that with costs running into millions of rands every month, the government is cutting down on employees on suspension.

According to former Minister of Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu, the costs were coming down as the backlog of disciplinary cases was being reduced. Opposition parties have complained about the number of officials being paid while their disciplinary cases drag on for months and sometimes years. To deal with this problem, the government established a unit to deal with disciplinary cases and reduce the backlog. Mchunu reported: “The unit adopted a project in (the third quarter) of 2020/2021 to assist those departments with long outstanding precautionary suspensions to address their backlogs and, as a result, the costs for precautionary suspensions. Due to the project, by end of March 2021, provinces finalised 78% of their precautionary backlogs (Q1: 1%, Q2: 8%, Q 3: 18%, Q4: 78%). The cost for precautionary suspensions was reduced, with the cost for national departments stabilising around R20 million per quarter and the cost for provinces decreasing from the first quarter to the last quarter with almost R25 million (Q1: R87 million compared to Q4: R62 million).” The unit specifically focused on the two provinces with the highest costs pertaining to precautionary suspensions, namely Free State and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Mchunu reported that the Free State managed to reduce its cost from R12 million in Q3 to R6 million in Q4, while KZN reduced its cost from a high of R92 million in Q3 to R21 million in Q4.

  • Read the original of the report in the above regard by Siyabonga Mkhwanazi at Independent Media


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