MEC admits what everyone else has known for years

17 October 2013 - 03:10 By The Times Editorial
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Gauteng's MEC for infrastructure development, Qedani Mahlangu, is remarkably frank for a politician.

 On Tuesday she became the first political head of a government department to publicly admit that her department was nowhere near achieving compliance with President Jacob Zuma's directive that the state pay small businesses within 30 days of their submission of an invoice.

"If you ask me if [the department] will be able to pay people in 30 days, the answer is 'No'.

"Not in 60 days, not in 90 days," she told the provincial legislature, adding that wayward officials were "dragging their feet" and stalling payments.

So there we have it: the livelihoods of countless businesspeople and their employees are being jeopardised by public servants who are not worthy of the name.

Yesterday, Mahlangu made more candid admissions: Too many public servants are unproductive, she said, there is a ''culture'' of staying away on Fridays, and many managers take two-hour lunches.

"We're spending so much money [on wages] but the value we get, in my view - and this is something the government as a whole needs to look at - leaves much to be desired."

There are pockets of excellence in the public service, and many officials committed to delivering the services this country so desperately needs, but Mahlangu's confessions are a chilling indictment of the multitudes of layabouts who cash their government cheques every month but spend most of their time in the office lazing about.

Independent research last year showed that the government, which employs more than a fifth of formal-sector workers, paid its employees 34% more on average than the private sector.

Urgent steps must be taken to ensure that our public servants earn their keep. Our entire development project depends on it.

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