Get rid of unqualified civil servants
It has been well publicised that SA has unacceptably high unemployment levels, with the official rate at 31.9% in the third quarter of 2023.
There are many reasons for this, with the economy struggling and factors such as loadshedding not helping.
It may be thought that a shortage of skills and training are other reasons, but that is not necessarily the case.
In fact there are thousands of newly qualified doctors, nurses and teachers who cannot get jobs.
This is though they are desperately needed in hospitals and schools where our citizens are being deprived of care and our children do not get a proper education.
The problem is money — there is not enough of it to employ these people who have the necessary skills to make a difference.
Why?
Well, the money paid to civil servants has quadrupled over the last 10 years.
There are more than 55,000 civil servants who earn — sorry, I mean get paid — more than R1,000,000 per annum.
Many of these get paid more than R5,000,000 pa — that’s more than the president and chief justice get.
And what has it brought us?
SOEs such as SAA which are bankrupt, a railway system that is inoperable, ports that can’t cope with handling exports and imports, municipalities that are dysfunctional, and 90% of wastewater treatment works that do not function.
This is the legacy of the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, putting unqualified and unskilled cadres into responsible jobs.
A recent audit found that some 40% of municipal financial officers are unqualified.
So what to do? Because we need to employ those doctors, nurses and teachers to revitalise our economy and give our youth the necessary education for their — and our — future.
There should have been an inquiry into the reasons for such an incredibly high civil service salary budget.
They should get no more than inflation increases, and certainly not undeserved bonuses. Moreover, job and staff structures should be strictly controlled, with no political appointments.
At this stage the obvious thing to do is an audit of civil servants, and then to sack all those who do not have the necessary qualifications or skills for their job.
This should save enough money to appoint some doctors, nurses and teachers, and it might even lead to some competency in government structures.
But will such an audit happen?
Very unlikely, since the people who will make the decisions are probably cadres who would not want to lose their cushy jobs.