The public service wage agreement of a 6% increase across the board for the 2024/2025 financial year is having a negative impact on staff hiring patterns at the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG). The salary agreement that was reached is for the next five years. It is believed that this agreement is adversely affecting how services are being delivered to our residents.
This was revealed by the Finance Department’s Head, Ncumisa Mnyani, at a recent Finance Committee Portfolio Committee Meeting. In terms of the negotiated agreement, 4,5% was backdated from 01 July 2024, with an additional 1,5% coming into effect on 01 March 2025.
But none of this money was budgeted for before the wage negotiations were entered into, and now all staffing needs except for ‘critical posts’ in all departments across the board are funded from baseline budgets agreed to last year. All new staff placements are unfunded.
Only the Departments of Health and Education have received additional amounts from National Treasury, all other departments are having to affect the incremental staff appointments from their existing budget allocations. This means that they are cutting back on the services they render to the residents of Gauteng.
Mnyani stated that the National Treasury has to confirm any deviations, which include staff recruitment appointments, and Premier Panyaza Lesufi has to approve these appointments. In short, the PERSAL system is locked, and staff appointments are frozen.
The DA will immediately request an investigation into what extent this directive is hampering the GPG from delivering on its mandate of attending to the needs of Gauteng’s citizens and whether this, in turn, is hampering service delivery in the province. We will table written questions to ascertain the staffing needs for the GPG.