Budget 2019: BIG ISSUE
CABINET: Looking ahead to cuts and consolidation
A smaller cabinet is a likely part of a reduced public wage bill. But policy consistency is a more important concern
A consolidation of economic departments into a "super ministry" is believed to be highly possible when President Cyril Ramaphosa reconfigures his cabinet after the May election. But a more pressing concern is that of ensuring policy consistency across the government. Under former president Jacob Zuma, the cabinet swelled to 70 members. Given that this left taxpayers footing a cabinet wage bill of about R164bn, a reconfiguration of the executive — announced by Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address — would seem necessary. It would go some way to reducing a public sector wage bill that finance minister Tito Mboweni called "unsustainable" in his budget presentation on Wednesday. While no specific announcements about the cabinet have yet been made, Mboweni said the first step towards tackling the public wage bill would be to allow older public servants "to retire early and gracefully". This will save an estimated R4.8bn in 2019/2020, R7.5bn in 2020/2021 and R8bn in 2021/2022. The ...
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