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Daily Maverick writes that writes that Enoch Godongwana’s first main budget as the recently appointed finance minister underscores that he has a tough job ahead in cutting, or what he prefers to call “restructuring”, the ballooning public sector remuneration bill.
The total cost of remunerating SA’s public servants is still heading in the wrong direction as it continues to rise and crowd out the government’s spending on things like crucial service delivery. From March 2022, Godongwana and Ayanda Dlodlo, the public service and administration minister, will begin negotiations with trade unions representing public servants about salary/remuneration adjustments for this year. A showdown is expected because trade unions will probably expect above-inflation salary increases, while the government doesn’t want to implement increases because it wants to reduce the remuneration bill. Godongwana’s 2022 budget shows that it will be a long time before the remuneration bill decreases. In the next three years, the public sector remuneration bill will fluctuate and resemble a rollercoaster ride. In a press briefing on 23 February, Godongwana said the government was no longer prepared to enter into costly multi-year salary increase agreements with public servants. He asked trade unions to moderate their salary adjustment expectations in 2022 because public finances are weak. Failing this, Godongwana issued the threat of reducing headcounts, through retrenchments. Meantime, trade unions that have taken the government to the Constitutional Court to force it to implement inflation-beating salary increases in 2020 of more than 5% that were promised by the government in 2018 but were never implemented. A ruling is expected on Monday.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ray Mahlaka at Daily Maverick
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