OUR VIEW: It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff

The news that public servants will likely be offloaded by government is both good
and bad.

It is good news because, as insinuated by government, it is a plan to cut down on the huge salary purse at all government institutions. To be realistic, almost 60-70 per cent of an institution’s budget goes towards salaries and the remaining 30 per cent goes towards service delivery. No wonder there is such a huge backlog in service delivery after 24 years of democratic rule.

If all government has a bloated public service, aren’t all those employees designated to their jobs or is government now in agreement that cadre deployment has resulted in the bloated figures? If that is the case, why can’t they identify their deployed cadres and flush them out of the system, especially the unqualified ones?

Secondly, there are those employees who are fast approaching their pension period – it would make sense if they first negotiated exit packages with that lot. Who knows, that group may constitute the envisaged number of employees they intend to offload. One other guiding factor for government to consider is remaining with a competitive staff that can deliver the job at hand, which is service delivery. It is time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The move is bad because all the employees who will be affected by this are authentic breadwinners in their respective homes. Some may be seated with unemployed spouses and children who have been affected by the severe lack of job opportunities. In that manner, government’s curtailment may not bring about any financial relief but misery and poverty among thousands if not millions of poor people.

Whatever the outcome, it should be in the spirit of Batho Pele – prioritising the downtrodden communities.
• Human trafficking is on the rise countrywide and this calls for extra precautionary measures from all community members. Just on Saturday my daughter was walking around i’langa Mall in the late afternoon. Unaware, she was alerted by some youngsters who told her that three men had been photographing her from behind. Out of panic and alertness, she immediately called me to pick her up. It remains a mystery why they were taking photos of her. It is illegal to take photos of someone without permission and worse still, not informing that particular person. What if she was not near family? A lot could have happened to her. What if they were planning to abduct her?

We’ve heard of numerous cases of people who simply disappear and later found murdered and some raped and assaulted.

It’s no longer safe for individuals to leave home without notifying family of their whereabouts. It’s no longer safe to allow your children to leave home to play, especially in villages, townships and complexes. It’s important to keep track and have knowledge of where they are and the identity of the people your children often play with.