The Presidency says government has forked out more than R10 million for Directors General (DGs) who were placed on suspension with full pay in past couple of years. This was revealed in a written Parliamentary reply from a Democratic Alliance (DA) question.
The reply indicates that these Directors General were investigated for allegations of misconduct from the financial years 2020/ 21 and 2022/ 23. The reply indicates that it took government almost a year to two years before some of these suspensions were resolved.
Defence and Military Veterans Director General, Irene Mpolweni is still on suspension since March last year while it took almost a year before former Public Enterprises DG Kgathatso Tlhakudi was axed.
Indefinite suspensions
The former DG of Public Works and Infrastructure’s suspension was finalised after two years. The DA has expressed concern, saying taxpayers are footing the bill for indefinite suspensions.
“We have seen a similar problem on the public service where public servants are on suspension for indefinite period. I mean we’ve come across instances where public servants have been on suspension for a period of up to 10 years or more. So I’m not surprised that the presidency is failing to resolve discipline management within a reasonable time,” says Dr Mimmy Gondwe, DA MP.
The suspensions of DGs which took a couple of months to be resolved were those of the Public Service Commission, Dr Dovhani Mamphiswana and International Relations and Cooperation Kgabo Mahoai.
Some say failure to conclude timeously these cases indicates that there’s a need for serious reform.
However, COSATU disagrees, saying there’s no clause in the labour law stating that employees should be suspended for an indefinite period.
“To blame labour laws, to blame the trade unions by politicians, by senior management is a deflection from their own failure and often at times you find that the very same senior managers themselves are not members of the trade unions. They fall outside the collective bargaining council processes. The issue is a will by politicians, by the accounting authority to do what they are paid to do. But we should be weary of weakening our labour laws which are designed to protect vulnerable people,” says Matthew Parks, COSATU Spokesperson.
The Presidency says the salaries paid to these DGs while on suspension are due and payable by virtue of the country’s labour laws.
Millions of rands spent on suspended DGs:
