SOUTH AFRICA
South African Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni is to press ahead with his plan to cut the Public Service wage bill by R160 billion ($A15.6 billion) over the next three years.
Announcing this in his Budget speech to Parliament, Mr Mboweni said the cuts were essential in order to contain the country’s spiralling debt.
Cuts of nearly R38 billion ($A3.7 billion) are proposed this year; R55 billion ($A5.4 billion) next year and more than R67 billion ($A6.5 billion) the following year.
Mr Mboweni said these figures would guide upcoming talks with unions but accepted there were tough negotiations ahead.
Minister for Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan (pictured) said Government and labour would have to work diligently to seek a compromise, with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) already saying the cuts were a “declaration of war”.
Mr Gordhan, who previously served as Minister for Finance, said the Budget reflected economic and fiscal realities.
“If business, labour and Government agree that we need to work to get more investment, we can grow the economy,” he said.
“If we can make sacrifices to that end, now is the time to do that.”
Parliamentary Liaison Officer for Cosatu, Matthew Parks said the congress would engage in good faith with the Government.
“As Cosatu we want to save the State; our members depend on it not just for salaries and pensions, but the public relies on it for service,” Mr Parks said.
“We have been having good talks around talks about wages with Government, but issues might not have been dealt with fast enough.”
He said the Government should also consider recovery and saving measures such as lifestyle audits or a 10 per cent cut in executive compensation.
Pretoria, 29 February 2020
