MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Extended Sick Leave Civil Servants Cost Province over R162 Million

By

Dear MyPE

The Eastern Cape has forked out over R162-million to pay civil servants who have been on extended sick leave for years. Of the total of 396 ailing officials, seven have been on extended sick leave for more than six years.

We need warm bodies at work, not bodies languishing in warm beds. It is time to press the reset button in the province. A DA-run provincial government will make sure that access to a government job is not an easy opportunity to just earn a salary.

According to a reply to a legislature question I asked Premier Phumulo Masualle, 208 civil servants were not at work for more than three months, 95 for over six months, 37 for over a year, 21 for two years, and a further 21 for over three years. Five officials had been sick for over four years, two officials for more than five years and seven for over six years. For the reply, click here.

The Premier made the telling observation in his reply that “relevant supervisors are not acting on absenteeism for long periods of time” and employees “just stay at home for as long as they wish without any discipline”.

The DA believes that, in a well-run province, good governance is necessary by ensuring that government officials sign performance agreements and that their performance is monitored regularly. There must be consequences for poor performance.

In our province, where there is a crying need for so much, we cannot afford waste a single cent.

The highest number of sick officials were in the Department of Education, totalling 278. Of this total, 198 had been extended sick leave for more than three months, 46 for more than six months, 12 for over a year, 18 for between two and five years and four people for more than six years. This cost an estimated R83,9-million in salaries.

In the Department of Health, a total of 72 officials had been on extended sick leave for between three months and over six years. Salaries paid to these persons was estimated at R55-million.

No officials were on extended sick leave in the Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, in the Department of Safety and Liaison or in the Provincial Treasury. This begs the question as to why some departments can get their staff administration right while other departments cannot?

Roadshows about human resource management are not going to fix this problem. Accounting officers and their HR-managers must be held accountable.

The DA has a vision of a working province, where those employed by government serve the people. It is time for the Premier to crack the whip.

Regards

Bobby Stevenson

The following two tabs change content below.

Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.