The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) notes with concern the comments attributed to the Deputy Minister of Finance Dr David Masondo, at an investor conference in Cape Town on Monday, where is said to have told investors of the government’s intention to freeze wages across its operations in curbing its escalating expenditure.

He further went on to boldly indicate that the government needed to show that it was in control of the public purse.

It is worth noting that the Alliance Political Council meeting, held on the 10-11 November 2019, referred this matter to take place within proper processes for engagement, and therefore attaching great importance to the urgent necessity for a holistic approach that involves all stakeholders and seeks to unify a widest possible range of South Africans to address this crisis.

We are of the view that the Deputy Minister’s comments are pre-emptive in nature, and can only seek to undermine the very platforms where such matters are to be thoroughly engaged on, and this could only lead to engagements which are set on bad faith.

Engagements should correctly be taken to the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) where conditions of service are discussed, and due processes must be followed.

We urge the Deputy Minister to refrain from making pronouncements on matters that are still on the table as these unilateral calls cannot be acceptable.

We are against these intentions to freeze public wages.

We are a developing nation that has set itself on the National Development Plan (NDP) path, which calls for a developmental state that should have the required capacity to serve the poor and the working class. It therefore requires more public servants such as police, and any intention to freeze wages would be an anti-thesis to this outlined plan.

The move to freeze wages of the public service will further hamper any form of economic growth due to the reduced buying power of the over 1.3 million of the public servants and further add to a stagnated economic outlook.

These excesses in the public service are also due to blatant corruption and misappropriated public funds as recently seen from the AG’s report, and therefore ordinary workers should not be made to take fall for corrupt officials. The Deputy Minister’s intended move would be tantamount to such.

Issued by POPCRU on 04/12/2019

For more information contact;Popcru National Spokesperson -Richard Mamabolo -066 135 4349