GNU a speed bump, not dead end, in reducing bloated cabinet: Godongwana

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana told parliament on Wednesday the government of national unity (GNU) necessitated the government put its plans to downsize the cabinet on pause but these plans were not scrapped altogether.

Godongwana was replying to questions in the National Assembly as part of the economic cluster of cabinet ministers. His remarks come as the government continues negotiations with public service unions for a new wage deal.

South Africans and opposition parties have raised concern about the 77-seat GNU executive after the May 29 elections. Reducing the size of the cabinet and government departments was a key commitment of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s previous term and his 2024 campaign.

MK Party MP and former Eskom and Transnet CEO Brian Molefe asked Godongwana how the GNU justified having “the most bloated cabinet in democratic South Africa’s history” and if the government would consider cutting the size of the cabinet.

Godongwana replied the need to form the GNU after the election where the ANC lost its absolute majority for the first time since the advent of democracy meant downsizing the cabinet could not be implemented immediately.

“Before the election there was a plan to reduce the number of departments and part of that also included restructuring some public entities. That programme is still in place.

“But a GNU requires accommodation of some of the critical players in [its] formation and therefore that necessitated the increase in the number of cabinet posts, but the strategic thrust of reorganising government remains on course,” he said.

In the initial question, DA MP Mark Burke asked Godongwana whether he was able to guarantee the increase in the public sector wage bill would not exceed the amount budgeted for in the medium-term budget policy statement.

Godongwana said he could not make any promises about the outcome of the public service wage negotiations.

“There is no guarantee that the projected amount will not be over the budget. We are in the middle of negotiations with the unions. At the time of the budget we indicated our baseline was based on the CPI at the time. CPI has since moved downward, but the offer we made at the time was 4.5% and after facilitation our offer was revised to 4.7%.”

Burke called the answer honest and transparent but lamented that the minister did not sound sure that costs could be contained. He asked how many times in the past five years the public service wage bill exceeded the offer and budget projections.

“On a few occasions, but there is a similar question which has been asked about how much we exceeded the budget,” Godongwana replied.

“Over the years there have been battles between ourselves and the unions which have ended up in court. In one year we provided a zero increase and in one year we provided what was called a cash gratuity. Subsequent to that, the cash gratuity has been converted in the past financial year into the basic line with a 3.3% increase, which amounted to 7.5%.”

ANC MP Molapi Lekganyane asked Godongwana if the government’s objectives of containing the public service wage bill meant there was a ban on filling vacant posts until the wage bill was contained.

Godongwana said only vacancies for critical posts would be filled and there is no ban on filling posts. However, critical vacancies would only be filled through a process which will require approval by the department of public service and the National Treasury.

“As part of cost containment, there is an agreement that we will not fill all the vacant posts other than the critical posts. To the extent that a department has critical posts that need to be filled, it needs to make an application to the department of public services and administration with finance concurrence.”

There was no evidence to suggest the public service was bloated and he dismissed this suggestion made by another MP. He said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found the size of South Africa’s public service per capita was behind that of its peers, though unit costs were high.

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