AKS Forum

solda · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 112

There is more hardship on the way, brought by the same people who promised that the future would be bright.The Government’s economic reform programme will cost more people their jobs by the year end. Around 1,000 people who are presently employed in the public service will be forced to quit as the aim of trimming down the number of personnel continues under the IMF assisted programme.

One of the items most noticeable in the Supplementary Allocations Bill brought to the National Assembly this week is R32 million which is being provided to pay off workers who are to be dismissed. This sum will cover salary, gratuity and length of service compensation.
Speaking in the Assembly, MNA André Pool said that Government intended that the payments to workers should not drag. It was planned that theyshould be over and done with by the end of the year.
Among those who are already slated to leave are cleaners, security guards and maintenance personnel. The cleaners are meant to organize themselves
into a co-operative which Government can use in the future while security guards are expected to join the existing private companies if they want to
continue in this line of work. But apart from these categories,a number of low level clerical staff are expected to go in various ministries. Some sections are expected to be decimated as a result. Other organizations where the axe will fall are state-owned companies which also are judged to be overstaffed.
One of the plans which public service managers are being asked to implement is for administrative and clerical staff to be deployed with more flexibilityamong different organizations.

This can mean staff with not one fixed workplace but available for deployment to various places as they are needed. With the retrenchment, retraining and replacement help has become more crucial but only half-hearted attempts have been made for such schemes.
After years of tolerating inefficiency, the SPPF Government leaders have become maniacs at job-cutting,yielding the axe with the zeal of the newly converted. It would have been much better to have adopted a more cost-efficient approach all along rather than making drastic cuts when the financial system is brought near to collapse.
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Regar 13/11/09