SOUTH AFRICA
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (pictured) has sought to defuse the angry response to Government plans to cut the public sector wage bill, urging that talks with unions “be conducted in a spirit of seeking solutions”.
Mr Ramaphosa voiced support for Minister for Finance, Tito Mboweni’s announcement in the Budget that the wage bill would be reduced by R160 billion ($A15.3 billion) over three years, but stressed this would be done not by cutting salaries but curtailing the rate at which salaries increased.
“Our approach is not to dramatically cut the size of the Public Service, but to examine the rate at which wages grow, Mr Ramaphosa said.
“Public Service wages have on average increased at a much higher rate than inflation over many years, and we need to fix this if we are to get public finances under control.”
He confirmed that the Government would also be targeting wage rates at the country’s State-owned enterprises, preventing excessive pay package for executives and board members.
“Our trade union compatriots are right in saying that we should, in a demonstrable way, prevent leakages of public funds by addressing corruption and ending irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. We will do this and much more,” Mr Ramaphosa said.
The President said that apart from containing the wage bill, the Government would also be looking at improving the efficiency of the Public Service.
“As much as containing the public wage bill is critical to stabilising public finances, improving public sector performance is imperative if we want to build a more capable, efficient State – we need more of the right people in the right positions,” he said.
Pretoria, 4 March 2020
