Millions spent on salaries for suspended Mpumalanga government employees

Mpumalanga taxpayers forked out over R25m during the 2023/24 financial year for the salaries of 45 officials who had been suspended.

According to the DA’s provincial chairperson, Bosman Grobler, the 2023/24 annual Auditor-General Financial Report for Mpumalanga revealed that seven government departments in the province spent more than R25m on salaries for 45 officials on precautionary suspension for over 60 days. “They were paid their huge salaries while staying at home and enjoying the spoils of the public service,” he says.

Grobler says the DA finds it unacceptable that taxpayers have paid this astronomical amount to officials who were already suspected of not adhering to the rules.

“Having officials suspended well over 60 days is a violation of the Disciplinary Codes and Procedure for Public Service Policy and the Department of Public Service and Administration’s [DPSA] Public Service Precautionary Suspensions Guide. This stipulates that the precautionary suspension period should not exceed 60 days. This means that the seven Mpumalanga government departments in question did not adhere to these guidelines,” he says.

Grobler adds that with huge service delivery shortages in the province, which is always blamed on a lack of funds, the DA finds it extremely concerning that since 2016, spending on precautionary suspension has escalated from R3.4m a year to more than R25m during the 2023/24 financial year.

“In light of the recent Eskom crisis and stagnant service delivery, the provincial government needs to eliminate the unnecessary expenditure and run government in such a way that its constituencies benefit from it,” he told Lowvelder.

“Recognising the negative impact such wasteful expenditure has on the public purse and on service delivery in particular, the DA calls on public service employers to stick to disciplinary procedures as contained in DPSA guides and ensure that effective systems are in place to prevent protracted suspensions,” he says.

Below are the amounts each of the seven departments spent on suspended officials:

• Department of Health (DoH): R3.9m on 22 officials who have been suspended, some for longer than a year
• Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (DPWRT): R228 000 on one official who was suspended for 365 days
• Department of Education (DoE): R1.3m on nine officials suspended for over 60 days
• Department of Social Development (DoSD): More than R328 000 on one official suspended for 240 days
• Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison (DCSSL): Nearly R11.5m on eight employees who have been suspended for over 60 days
• Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT): More than R6.7m on two employees suspended for longer than 60 days
• Office of the Premier (OTP): Nearly R1.5m on one employee who has been suspended for 366 days.

Response from the provincial departments

The DoE’s spokesperson Gerald Sambo said he is aware that there are officials who are suspended, and by law they are supposed to get paid until their cases are resolved. “However, I will verify with our human resource section about their cases,” he promised.

The DEDT spokesperson Dr Mohau Ramodibe, said: “We confirm that two officials were suspended on full pay for a period exceeding 60 days during the 2023/24 financial year. The amount paid to the two officials during their suspension was more than R617m. The reason for the suspensions taking more than 60 days was due to postponements, deemed necessary and agreed upon between the employees and the chairperson of the disciplinary hearings.”

The DCSSL’s spokesperson Moeti Mmusi said they are investigating the matter for verification purposes to respond accurately.

The DoSD spokesperson Centie Ngubane said the department wishes to put on record that the official in question was suspended in September 2022, which was in the 2022/23 financial year and not the 2023/24 financial year as allegedly stated in the DA statement. The suspension was subsequently lifted in June 2023.

“The reason the suspension took beyond the prescribed period is that the official in question had repeatedly been booked off sick by her doctors. This situation repeatedly halted proceedings from time to time to allow the official time to be ready to participate in the processes.

The department remains committed to resolving issues speedily and to ensure that service delivery is delivered smoothly,” said Ngubane.

The OTP, DPWRT and DoH did not respond to Lowvelder’s enquiry by the time of publishing.