Salary bill threatens state money meant for basic services, Mboweni warns
Mboweni made the remarks while delivering the annual Professor Kader Asmal memorial lecture
Finance minister Tito Mboweni has said the public sector wage bill has become a serious drain on the public purse, with R8 out of every R10 spend by government going to salaries of civil servants. And Mboweni warned this could have serious repercussions on government's ability to provide basic and essential services such as health care, education and policing. Mboweni made the remarks while delivering the annual Professor Kader Asmal memorial lecture hosted by the Gaby Shapiro branch of the ANC in Mowbray, Cape Town, on Saturday. Asmal was an ANC anti-apartheid activist who went to serve as water affairs minister and later as education minister before he passed in 2011. Mboweni said the ANC was were well aware of the governance challenges being facing amid a gloomy economic outlook. He said that if the ANC-led government was "better organised" it would not be spending the bulk of its revenue on public sector salaries. Earlier in the year, national treasury documents showed that gove...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.