The government presented a document to trade unions on Tuesday (25 February) which shows how the salaries of South Africa’s civil servants have more than doubled over the last decade.<\/p>\n
The confidential document – which has been seen by the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong> – shows that a government director on salary level 13 who was earning just under R550,000 in 2007, now earns more than R1.2 million.<\/p>\n The salaries of low-ranking officials have also increased substantially during the same period, with mid-career civil servants at level 7 who were earning R151,000 in 2007 now being paid about R375,000.<\/p>\n These civil servants have also been given access to a number of perks over this time period including allowances for housing, mobile phone use, and travel.<\/p>\n Together these benefits and allowances cost the taxpayer of R27 billion a year, the report shows.<\/p>\n Labour economist Andrew Levy told the Sunday paper that public-sector salary hikes are higher than in the private sector \u2013 with no improvement in productivity.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no link in the public sector between pay and productivity. These guys are the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me , they are the labour elites and furthermore they never get fired.\u201d<\/p>\n Reducing the wage bill<\/strong><\/p>\n Government will now reduce the public sector wage bill by R160 billion<\/a><\/strong> over the next three years as the state attempts to reduce high spending on salaries in the sector, \u00a0finance minister Tito Mboweni said in his Budget Speech this past week.<\/p>\n Between 2006\/07 and 2011\/12, the state added about 190,000 employees. However, wages also increased significantly over this time period, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo balance the books, we slowed hiring, and since 2011\/12, the number of government employees has declined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot go on like this. Classroom sizes are growing, hospitals are getting fuller and our communities are becoming increasingly unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n He said once wage growth, corruption and wasteful expenditure was under control, government would focus its attention on hiring in important areas such as education, police, and health care.<\/p>\n “We can hire strategically and better match skills with opportunities,\u201d Mboweni said.<\/p>\n War in the streets<\/strong><\/p>\n The plan to reduce the wage bill has already been met with open hostility by the country’s labour unions, with a fight-back already underway.<\/p>\n