Civil servants pocket R3 billion in incentives over five years

Public Service and Administration Minister Noxolo Kiviet has confirmed that civil servants earned almost R3 billion in incentives – including performance bonuses and 13th cheques.

Kiviet was responding to questions from DA Shadow Minister of Public Service Leon Schreiber.

Within this period — comprising 2019–2024 — the payments included nearly R129 million paid to approximately 400 officials who were on suspension on full pay, reports the Sunday Times.

These allegations range from fraud and corruption to harassment and assault on school pupils. The Sunday Times reports some of these individuals were on this fully-paid suspension for as long as 42 months.

The majority of the expenditure was by provincial administrations — which is logical as they employ most of the country’s public servants.

Curiously, 2021 was the year in which the most incentives were paid out — where R819 million was paid despite the country being in the middle of the financially challenging Covid-19 pandemic.

Justifying the spending

Public Service and Administration department spokesperson Moses Mushi said the “service bonus” encourages employees to stay in the public service.

“This has been a standard remuneration philosophy across the public and private sectors,” said Mushi.

Mushi also noted that there had been a significant effort to cut spending on bonuses over the past five years. In 2018, 218,792 employees earned performance bonuses, whereas in 2024, the figure has dropped to only 3,767.

“This reflects a consistent management of the wage bill,” said Mushi.

“But this is not the only intervention in the management of the national fiscus. Managing the wage bill continues to be aligned with the delivery of services.”

Kiviet noted that performance bonuses are given out based on the audit outcomes of each employee’s department.

“The performance assessments of heads of department and members of the senior management service take into consideration the auditor-general’s findings and opinions and the department’s performance against the planned targets included in its annual performance plan,” she said.

Schreiber responded critically to this spending data, calling it “astounding” given the country’s challenging economic conditions.

“That the Ramaphosa government has dished out performance bonuses, luxury vehicles and years-long paid vacations dressed up as suspensions to the very officials who plunged the country into hardship and misery, is the ultimate slap in the face for South African citizens,” said Schreiber.

“Looking back over the Ramaphosa administration, we can conclude that it has utterly failed to build a capable state and has instead continued to reward its deployed cadres for collapsing the South African state.”

Leon Schreiber, DA Shadow Minister of Public Service

SOE disaster

While the government continues to pay our incentives to civil servants, its state-owned entities continue to crumble.

Over the past three years, Eskom has reported losses of R54.6 billion, while the SA Post Office’s accumulated losses for the same period sit at R6.8 billion.

Transnet actually had a year where it was profitable — in 2021/22 — but has still accumulated a net loss of R9.4 billion over the past three years.

There are roads to recovery for these SOEs, but they are not cheap.

During his 2023 Budget Speech, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced a R254 billion debt relief arrangement for the utility.

Transnet is in the middle of a turnaround strategy, while the SA Post Office’s business rescue plan was approved in December 2023.

As part of its turnaround strategy, Transnet has been forced to make major budget cuts to handle its R12.5 billion in liabilities it had as of 31 July 2023, while the SA Post Office’s business rescue plan included cutting thousands of jobs to make ends meet.

However, the post office recently reached an agreement with labour groups to stop retrenching many employees.

Instead, these employees will be paid using the UIF’s Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (TERS) over the next 12 months, and the Post Office will work on a “progressive turnaround plan, not based upon culling staff.”