Zuma to expand his cabinet

09 April 2014 - 02:01 By Olebogeng Molatlhwa
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LOYAL CADRES: ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe speaking at a press conference in Centurion, near Pretoria, on the party's national nomination list. Mantashe yesterday defended the surprise inclusion of a number of ANC members who have been tainted by corruption claims and criminal charges
LOYAL CADRES: ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe speaking at a press conference in Centurion, near Pretoria, on the party's national nomination list. Mantashe yesterday defended the surprise inclusion of a number of ANC members who have been tainted by corruption claims and criminal charges
Image: SYDNEY SESHIBEDI

The public sector wage bill will bulge even further when President Jacob Zuma adds yet another ministry to an already hefty lineup.

Zuma is expected to be sworn in for a second five-year presidential term after the May 7 election.

With Zuma's swearing-in will come the creation of a ministry to oversee small, medium and micro business enterprises (SMMEs).

This will increase the number of national government departments to 35 - and push up the state's wage bill, which already devours R450-billion of the R1.25-trillion total budget, or about 35% of government spending.

Since first assuming office, in 2009, Zuma has created seven new government ministries.

His predecessors, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, had kept the number of government departments at 28.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, speaking yesterday in Johannesburg at a breakfast briefing hosted by the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the creation of the small business ministry was imperative.

"Maybe we need a ministry that focuses on SMMEs and cooperatives," he said.

"We think that if we can have that ministry it will unlock finances to small businesses. That idea is [being] debated [in the ANC] and we hope it will be implemented."

Mantashe told Sacci members of the chamber that the ministry would "facilitate the growth of small businesses into bigger enterprises".

The addition of another ministry is contrary to plans announced by the government to arrest the rise of the public-sector wage bill.

Delivering his medium-term budget policy statement in parliament in October, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said: "The Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration are working to improve the monitoring of [state] wage bill trends and to enforce discipline in hiring new personnel."

Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu committed herself to trimming the public service, which employs about 1.3million people.

The department estimated it could save about R8-billion a year by reducing the number of funded vacant posts.

But, since 2005, 250000 positions in the public administration have been added to national and provincial government payrolls.

At the briefing Mantashe said small business owners could not be allowed to fire employees without following the law.

"If you fire people on your feet, you will spend 50 days at the CCMA. Small businesses can't be exempt from treating their employees fairly. We can't give business, on the basis of size, licence to treat workers badly," he said.

Mantashe was responding to a comment from radio host Michael Avery, who said small business owners spent on average 20 days a year at the CCMA in disputes caused by what he said were "rigid" employment laws.

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