Government spending on civil service remains untouched in budget plans

The elephant in the government spending room once again remained unscathed in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s income and revenue plans for 2025-26.

Yesterday, if anything, the huge beast got even larger.

The government’s spending on civil service salaries sucks up a massive chunk of annual revenues and economists are virtually unanimous on their assessment that the productivity from these people comes nowhere near justifying the money spent on them.

Yet, for years, the ANC has resisted taking a pruning knife to government employment and, even now, despite being part of a multiparty government of national unity (GNU), still appears to hold sway when refusing to slaughter that particular holy elephant.

Godongwana admitted that the three-year wage increase deal negotiated with civil servants last year would cost a lot extra… and then tried to justify it by saying that at least the fixed term period brought certainty to planning.

In other areas, he found even more money to throw at civil servants – although in these particular cases, there is more than ample reason to do so.

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An extra R19.1 billion is to be allocated to improving salaries for teachers.

Then, an additional R29.8 billion is going to be found to persuade medical personnel to stay with the state, as well as finding a few more to fill gaps.

As there is repeatedly when the Cosatu unions allied to the ANC protest about the budget, there is the inescapable irony that union members are already an elite in society because they have jobs, where about 40% of work-age and work-capable South Africans remain unemployed.

Then again, there is the repeated shout about “austerity”, which is what the government is accused of. Citizens of other countries – crippled by huge tax hikes and drastic cuts in their civil service numbers – would love to our sort of problems.

Sure, VAT is going up by 0.5 of a percentage point this year and the same amount next year, but it is still lower than some countries.

Our “sin taxes” might have gone up but the government has sensibly resisted the temptation to squeeze more blood out of the fuel levy stone.

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High fuel prices do hurt economic growth and that penny appears to be dropping now for the ANC.

What is encouraging about Godongwana’s speech – lost though it may have been in the dust of the VAT increase – was the fact that the government is undertaking large-scale assessments of many facets of how it delivers services.

From procurement processes to staffing levels and efficiency, all will be examined and recommendations made to Cabinet.

While it won’t be in the same league as the chainsaw-slashing being done by Elon Musk and his department of government efficiency (Doge) in the US, such an audit is long overdue in South Africa.

Our bloated civil service is a haven for ANC cadres who are deployed for their loyalty to the party, rather than their qualifications and ability.

Like any elephant, though, our civil service will have to be eaten in small helpings.

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