This is how many government officials are suspended with pay in South Africa
There are currently 471 government officials sitting at home on paid suspension – up from the 417 recorded a year ago.
Of these 471 officials, 288 are public servants in national departments and 183 from provincial departments.
This was revealed by Public Service and Administration Minister Mzamo Buthelezi in a recent parliamentary response to a question from EFF’s Sixolisa Gcilishe.
According to information captured on the Personnel Salary System (PERSAL), as of the end of July 2024, 54 of these employees have been suspended for a period longer than one year while receiving pay.
“The longest period that a public servant has spent while on paid suspension in the 2023-24 financial year is five years,” said Buthelezi.
| Number of years on paid suspension | Number of cases |
| More than 1 year, less than 2 years | 32 |
| More than 2 years, less than 3 years | 16 |
| More than 3 years, less than 4 years | 1 |
| More than 4 years, less than 5 years | 4 |
| More than 5 years, less than 6 years | 1 |
| 54 |
Of the 54 employees on suspension for more than a year, 17 are from the education sector, and eight are from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
“These cases are considered complex cases and could not be finalised within the prescribed period,” saide Buthelezi.
In the education sector, cases involving teachers committing sexual transgressions against learners are referred to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) and “these teachers cannot be considered for precautionary transfers.”
The ELRC indicated it has a backlog of cases, which impacts the finalisation of cases.
Looking at the NPA cases, some involve allegations of corruption, fraud and financial investigations and prosecutors cannot be considered for precautionary transfers.
“Some of the cases in the NPA were delayed due to attempts to interdict the disciplinary process and by challenging suspensions,” said Buthelezi.
Looking at cases that have gone on for longer than 3 years, these were recorded by the:
- Department of Defence (5 years);
- Department of Higher Education and Training (4 years);
- NPA (3 years);
- Gauteng Province – Department of Economic Development (4 years) and Human Settlements (4 years);
- KwaZulu Natal – Department of Education (4 years).
Recently, News24 reported that Buthelezi has been looking to crack the whip on paid suspension.
According to the minister, the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has come up with a plan to stop suspended officials from sitting idly at home while receiving full pay.
The DPSA said that it is taking a new directive for discipline management, including the transfer of suspended officials to other departments or units.
“These transfers, the department wants to ensure that while every senior and qualified and competent official is undergoing disciplinary processes, they don’t just sit at home on suspension but they are transferred to other departments or units for them to use their skills and qualifications to benefit that unit while they are on suspension,” said Buthelezi.
“Our new directive on discipline management encourages timely hearings and precautionary transfers to ensure compliance with applicable timeframes for resolution processes,” he added.
Buthelezi emphasised a strong commitment to ethics, noting that lifestyle audits for senior management are being implemented, with 147 of 160 departments completed by July 2024.
“”To support ethical activities, we have institutionalised the ethics officer position across all departments; these officers promote ethics, manage conflicts of interest and report unethical behaviour,” and developing an ethics self-assessment tool, added the minister.
In 2023, it was reported that 417 public servants were on suspension with full pay, with amounts paid to these individuals totaling at least R128.3 million.
Notably, a Department of Health Official with a salary level 12 was on paid suspension for well over 3 years, costing the fiscus at least R4.74 million.
These payments balloon an already heightened public sector wage bill.
A report by the Centre for Risk Analysis highlights that the country’s public sector wage bill costs South Africa around R721 billion a year (2023/24 figures) – over nearly 35% of the country’s budget.
Written by Tamara Dimant, Chris Hattingh and Nicholas Lorimer, the report highlighted that South Africa has the third-highest government wage bill as a share of GDP compared with 20 major global economies.
“Although South Africa has a much smaller economy, its wage bill as a share of GDP (about 10.5%) towers over economic powerhouses such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Japan,” it said.
Hattingh said that “this places significant pressure on an already constrained fiscus, and adding to that fiscal pressure are rising debt servicing costs along with public sector wage increases with further raises being pushed for by labour unions.”
Thus, “there is a growing risk of funding being diverted from other departments and National priorities such as infrastructure (and education) to service the country’s debt and to foot the public sector wage bill,” he added.
This is seen to be materialising, with Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube saying that “unsustainable” public wage increases over the past 15 years have made the wage bill unaffordable, consuming nearly 35% of government spending and limiting investment in essential areas like education.
If this is not the case, increasing this wage bill is said to strain already stressed taxpayers – with 95% of all personal income tax in the country paid by 30% of taxpayers and 97% of all corporate income tax paid by just 3.5% of companies.
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