South Africa’s Minister for Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu (pictured) has rejected claims by the Opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) Party that R11 billion ($A8.8 million) had been paid to Public Servants who did little or no work during the COVID-19 lockdown.
It follows a statement by DA Member of Parliament, Leon Schreiber that at least 84,000 Public Servants were paid their full salaries even though they could not perform their duties while in lockdown.
Mr Mchunu said many Government workers, such as those in the health and law enforcement sectors, had been performing essential services and were at full stretch throughout the lockdown.
“The rest of the Public Servants have been working remotely from home — and the work has been done,” Mr Mchunu said.
“There is no classification of non-essential Public Servants. Public Servants have played and continued to play a vital part in ensuring an effective response to the pandemic,” he said.
Mr Mchunu said slashing of Public Service salaries would not only affect the delivery of services to the public but would be contrary to the provisions of the Public Service Act.
“Public servants also include the judiciary, as well as members in the National Executive and Parliament, who have also continued to receive their salaries in full,” he said.
“Parliament had gone into a three week recess following the declaration of the national state of disaster, and its members were fully paid — and that includes Mr Schreiber,” Mr Mchunu said.
Pretoria, 14 August 2020
