Labour federation Cosatu has called for a reduction in the size of the Cabinet and the legislature and for the salaries of ministers and MPs to be slashed in order to save costs. This would be an alternative to the freezing of civil servant posts that the Treasury has proposed, among measures, to reduce government expenditure. Cosatu’s proposal was made by its parliamentary liaison officer Matthew Parks in a presentation on Wednesday during public hearings by Parliament’s two finance committees on the medium-term budget policy statement. "If government wants to reduce the public wage bill, then it should reduce the exorbitant packages paid to national and provincial cabinets, members of Parliament, judges and senior management in the parastatals. "Government can reduce the size of national and provincial cabinets and the number of members of parliament and provincial legislatures. That is where the fat can be found, not amongst poorly paid nurses, teachers, cleaners and police offic...
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