Please find attached a soundbite by Dr Mimmy Gondwe MP.
The South African taxpayer is footing a salary bill of more than R130 million for the 305 public servants that are currently on suspension with full pay across the public service.
This was disclosed in a written reply by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to a DA Parliamentary question on the number of public servants that are currently on suspension with full pay and the cost of these suspensions to the South African taxpayer.
According to the written reply by the DPSA, provincial departments account for the bulk of this salary bill having paid R90 million in salaries to 226 public servants that are currently on suspension with full pay and the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal is footing most (namely 36%) of this R90 million salary bill.
National departments, on the other hand, have paid R40 million in salaries to 79 public servants that are currently on suspension with full pay, with the Departments of Public Service and Administration and Public Works and Infrastructure accounting for the bulk of this R40 million salary bill.
It is important to highlight that because the written reply reflects a number of gaps in terms of the costs of some of these suspensions, the total cost of these suspensions, to the South African taxpayer, is definitely higher than the R130 million disclosed in the written reply.
The written reply by the DPSA, is also indicative of the discipline management crisis in the public service. In August this year, the DPSA conceded, during a meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, that there was no discipline management system being implemented in our country’s public service. This has, obviously, contributed towards government departments failing to manage disciplinary cases within the time frames stipulated by the Public Service Regulations.
The DA, once again, reiterates its calls for the DPSA, as the custodian of policy formulation and implementation in the public service, to urgently develop and implement a discipline management strategy, in the public service, that will ensure that this crisis does not continue to come at a great cost to the already burdened South African taxpayer.