In no province is this more evident than in the Eastern Cape stronghold of the ANC – these days the acronym for African National Criminals. The Democratic Alliance complimented the provincial minister for Provincial Planning and Treasury, Sakhumzi Somyo, for a “sobering speech” in which he highlighted a number of “home truths” one of which was the big increase in the provincial wage bill from R31.4billion in 2010/11 to an estimated R 40.171 billion in 2014/15.
The “shadow” provincial minister for finance, the DA’s Bobby Stevenson (known to his friends a ‘Blobby’ he’s a big man and throws a large shadow) said there’s been a “massive rise in employee costs without a rise in service delivery. Services are simply not being delivered as they should”.
He said for many years now the DA has warned of the dangers of spending over 64% of the budget on employee costs or rather 78% if one removes the conditional grants from the budget. Unless spiraling costs of employment are checked and stringent cost containment measures implemented the Eastern Cape will end up as nothing more than “an employment agency” with no service delivery.
