Millions wasted when our public servants misbehave

IN MR Russell Ongley’s excellent letter in your edition of Friday, September 23, he expressed his thoughts exactly and it is definitely deserving of a more in-depth analysis by politicians of all parties.

Since, as he so succinctly puts it, millions of rand have been spent from state coffers for senior public servants to take advantage (I presume) of our so-called wonderful constitution to continually defend the indefensible.

Millions of rand wasted is not an exaggeration when one considers over the past five years in particular the number of cases that have gone from one court to another, in order to extract the maximum amount of time before the hammer falls.

It should be mentioned that one can also add the huge salaries that are paid to these individuals, while these cases go through the various courts with them often being under suspension with full pay.

These salaries, when they are added up, must also be in the millions.

It is a disgrace that it can take up to 12 months for a senior public official’s case to be heard and during this time, he is suspended with full pay.

One can understand the frustration of certain sections of the community, without condoning their often extreme behaviour, when they see these sorts of shenanigans under the guise of democratic rights.

I am surprised that this subject has not come up on various radio

Add the huge salaries paid to them while cases go through courts

stations,

It is deserving of in-depth discussion because the amounts of money involved are staggering and our labour laws and/or the constitution need to be amended to curtail this wasteful expenditure which, as Mr Russell Ongley so correctly states, could be used for more important matters such as the upliftment of the poor. Brian Compton