South Africa: Enoch Godongwana Still Faces an Uphill Battle in Cutting the Public Sector Remuneration Bill

The finance minister’s 2022 budget shows that it will be a long time before the remuneration bill decreases. Godongwana plans to spend R682.5-billion in the government’s 2022/23 fiscal year to compensate SA’s 1.2m public servants — just less than 2% of the country’s population.

Enoch Godongwana’s first main budget as the recently appointed financial minister underscores that he has a tough job ahead in cutting, or what he prefers to call “restructuring”, the ballooning public sector remuneration bill.

The total cost of remunerating SA’s public servants is still heading in the wrong direction as it continues to rise and crowd out the government’s spending on things like crucial service delivery.

From March 2022, Godongwana and Ayanda Dlodlo, the public service and administration minister, will begin negotiations with trade unions representing public servants about salary/remuneration adjustments for this year. A showdown is expected because trade unions will probably expect above-inflation salary increases, while the government doesn’t want to implement increases because it wants to reduce the remuneration bill.

Godongwana’s 2022 budget shows that it will be a long time before the remuneration bill decreases, which eats up a huge chunk of the government’s expenditure. Godongwana plans to spend R682.5-billion in the…