Time for City to trim salaries
THE gulf between the mind of a businessperson and that of a top civil servant is never so wide as when there is a crisis like the one facing citizens of a major city like Cape Town.
The Mother City’s 800 000 ratepayers, most of them business and homeowners, are taking the brunt of the impact of this pandemic.
They not only employ a great many people; they pay the rates and taxes that pay the City’s 27 000 municipal servants – very few of whom are creators of wealth like those people working in the private sector.
When it comes to the present critical state of the economy as a result of the lockdown, members of this exclusive club seem to have missed the point that they are all civil servants.
They seem not to know the description means “Servants of the People”.
They are unaware that when those they serve endure hard times – as virtually every ratepayer and taxpayer certainly is suffering during this pandemic – servants also have to suffer.
In Cape Town’s case, it is bluntly stated that the officials will help when they can, but can’t risk a breakdown in service provision.
The City is also looking at ways to assist with business continuity, but can’t take on the task of significant economic support beyond its mandate.
Most ratepayers, especially the small business owners and those who have seen their utilities and rates bills increase exponentially in recent years, beg to differ. They feel senior council servants should, at the least, trim their personal budgets, if they lack the courage to cut into the serious fat that drips from the City budget.
The country is in the grip of a major economic and social crisis.
Teachers, policemen, doctors and nurses, and those who keep the streets safe and the drains clean, remove refuse, run the water and sewerage works, should be given a pandemic bonus. Everyone else must vasbyt, especially the thousands of millionaires lurking in the various civil services.
They should be able to rustle up a couple of billion from their salaries, without too much trouble.
Nor should they follow the self-serving trend of demanding interest or repayment for demonstrating common human goodness in a time of great need.
In a plain language message from citizens to civil servants: “Cut your spending on unnecessary things such as cycle lanes and the paint that defines them. Retire the former electricity and water meter readers whose jobs have been outsourced. Cut the number of clerks still employed for a time when there were no personal computers. Mothball public swimming pools or shut them for six months at least.”
It cannot be too difficult to shave off millions if you cut back on managerial perks. Charge them for all-day free parking. Drive smaller, cheaper cars, or take the bus and train.
In every other sphere, new ways of working and leveraging technology have resulted in increased productivity, enhanced efficiency, and leaner, fit-for-purpose workforces.
This trend should be actively pursued beyond the privileged job security of the unionised civil services.
It’s time the highly-paid “servants of the people” shared the economic pain of those who pay their salaries.