Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana has defended the wage agreement that was signed between government and its employees for this year.
Godongwana was answering a question from the Democratic Alliance (DA) during an oral reply session for Economic Cluster Minister in the National Assembly.
The DA wanted to know whether the expenditure on the public sector wage increase was ratified.
Godongwana says wage agreements in South Africa are determined in the Public Service Coordinated Bargaining Council and not by National Treasury.
“Let me pause for a moment and say something about this wage agreement. It has achieved two things for us. First one is stability in a sense that moving forward, we now know in the next financial year how much we must pencil in, because we have had a two year agreement.
“Moving forward, we’ll make sure that by the time we table it in the Medium Term budget Policy Statement next year, they would have achieved another agreement for the following years, so that we have stability in the budgeting process. The second component of it, is developing trust between government and its employees. And two, fundamental with something which has been a problem in the previous negotiation period.”
