Mboweni: Govt still committed to slashing wage bill
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni maintains government still stands by its plans to cut the public sector wage bill.
The debate about the wage bill remains a contentious issue among government officials, unions and blue-collar workers.
Previous estimates showed that the wage bill costs the country's fiscus almost R600 billion a year, but in last month’s Medium-Term Policy Budget Statement Mboweni told MPs the bill had grown by 7.2% year-on-year.
On Tuesday Mboweni said government is left with no other choice but to make cuts.
“We have to adjust our expenditure patterns and one of the items that we have to consider is what is being paid to public civil servants.
“If we do not contain expenditure in the light of these developments, I have described then we are not serious about running a middle-income country which requires an understanding on the complexity of issues and complex issues require complex solutions.”
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Speaking at a roundtable discussion with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Mboweni said government and trade unions would need to come to a compromise.
“The Minister of the Department of Public Service and Administration is in conversation with the leadership of the trade union movement to make sure that they come to an understanding but whatever they agree upon cannot break the sanctity of the fiscal framework that we have presented.
“The political will is there from the government’s side, from the African National Congress and the African National Congress in conversation with the alliance partners in the trade unions movement.”
Mboweni further reiterated the call for public representative salaries to also be cut by 30%.
“If all of the people involved understand the severity of the situation which we are in then I’m sure they should accept this.
“Those who have jobs should be grateful that they have jobs, and they should be willing to reduce their compensation in order to deal with the overall budgetary situation.”
He warned: “There’s no other option.”
