NEHAWU EXTREMELY CONCERNED BY THE OBSCENE SALARIES OF DIRECTORS GENERAL
NEHAWU is extremely concerned by the obscene salaries that are paid to the Directors-General of government departments as published by the last weekend's issue of City Press newspaper (see report). This follows the president's decision last year to approve the salary increases of political leaders and senior government officials by 5%.
These huge salaries and benefits are the source of the huge wage gap that exist between senior public servants and officials from their departments. The union reiterates its call for government to put a moratorium on salary increases of all senior bureaucrats and political leaders in order to address the unacceptable income disparities that exist in the public service.
These figures are an insult to South Africans who are struggling to afford basic necessities and the poorly paid public officials who went on a strike last year demanding 8.5% but only received 7.5% because they were told that there is no money. These salaries mean that a nurse or a police officer who is at the coalface of service delivery will have to work for nine {9} years before earning an annual salary of a director-general.
What is even more disturbing is the fact that most of these government departments are not shining models of efficiency and excellence when it comes to executing their mandates as evidenced by their audit reports and population dissatisfaction.
The South African working class is faced with mounting social challenges and political leaders in their public statements continue to urge the poor public servants to moderate their salary increase demands and keep on offering them paltry salaries while at the same time they are applying different standards for senior bureaucrats.
Senior government officials need to understand that this country's taxpayers and members of the public expect them to be motivated by the desire to serve them and not by self enrichment in their government jobs. Government needs to be very prudent when using public funds and should set a good example for the private sector and the rest of society to follow. It is disappointing to see that these obscene salaries have not fixed but have exacerbated the apartheid engineered wage gap between the rich and the poor in this country.
Statement issued by Sizwe Pamla, NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer, March 22 2011
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
