It appears that government has been caught off guard by the recent salary review for its 43 959 employees.
This review has resulted in the wage bill increasing by an astounding 36 per cent and is likely to even surpass the E10.48 billion that had been projected early this year.
This is in contrast to E9.80 billion spent in the last financial year.
Government has been forced to rope in the same World Bank that has been calling for a reduction in the number of civil servants.
Cabinet is once again talking about the Enhanced Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme (EVERS), which for the past decade or so, has been placed on the back burner, with the argument being that it would have a negative socio-economic impact.
Lest we forget, just eight months ago, in March, Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg stated categorically that EVERS was out of the question.
This was not just a loose comment; the minister had valid reasons for his assertion, reasons that were welcomed and supported by public sector associations, with the exception of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT).
This debate took place shortly after the Central Bank of Eswatini hosted a Budget Review Seminar, a few weeks after the minister had delivered his budget speech.
During that seminar, Rijkenberg dismissed the idea of downsizing the government workforce, warning of ‘severe social and economic consequences’ for Eswatini if that were to happen.
He admitted that both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had previously advised government to conduct large-scale retrenchments to reduce the civil servants’ wage bill.
Indeed, over the years, the IMF has repeatedly warned that the ever-ballooning wage bill was a disaster waiting to happen for Eswatini.
However, at the budget review seminar in March, Minister Rijkenberg said they could not retrench because that would be catastrophic.
This was despite evidence that in 2018, the country had the second-highest wage bill expenditure ratio in the world.
Ironically, we were only behind a fellow Southern African Development Community (SADC) neighbour in Lesotho, a developing country like ours.
Rijkenberg actually reasoned that efforts, like the 2018 hiring freeze, had reduced the wage bill from 42 per cent to 32 per cent of government expenditure in the last six years.
He noted though, that the last salary review in 2016 had `significantly’ strained the country’s finances, resulting in government spending E1.6 billion more on salaries.
The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) concurred with the minister, with President Bawinile Ndlovu saying mass layoffs could lead to severe social consequences like increased crime and prostitution.
Ndlovu said even though they were alive to the fact that the wage bill was bloated, ghost employees should also be factored into the equation, because they were also receiving undeserved salaries.
The Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union’s (SWADNU) Mayibongwe Masangane was also of the same view, saying reducing the number of civil servants would affect service delivery and render Eswatini a failed State. At the time, only SNAT differed, with Secretary General Lot Vilakati saying government should not retain unproductive workers.
Vilakati actually disclosed that some teachers wanted to leave the civil service because of low wages and the high cost of living.
Come to think of it, it would be interesting to know how SNAT feels about EVERS now, with hundreds of teachers’ salaries reviewed upwards.
Would their valued members still be willing to take early retirement?
In any event, a week ago, when he presented the Mid-Term Budget in Parliament, Minister Rijkenberg unmistakably sang a different tune on the EVERS melody.
The matter was raised by Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament (MP) Marwick Khumalo, who asked if government, confronted with the dilemma of a ballooning wage bill after the 2025 salary review, did not consider revisiting the EVERS idea.
Khumalo opined that people could retire at the age of 55 and invest their payouts back into the economy. In response, the Finance minister said government was seriously considering implementing another early retirement initiative.
However, he said the challenge they faced in the past was that those government hoped would opt in on the early retirement scheme chose to keep their jobs, while those they wanted to retain decided to leave.
“Unfortunately, we have to open the EVERS window again but this time, it must be limited to the 3 200 identified workers, so that we target those no longer needed in government,” he told MPs. In my view, this is not unfortunate.
The minister has said himself that these 3 200 workers are no longer eligible to be under government’s employ, with some already having reached the retirement age of 60.
What boggles the mind is why they are still at work in the first place?
Had they been identified quicker and shown the exit door, would we be where we are now, laden with an excruciating wage bill migraine?
This is just one example of unnecessary and wasteful expenditure the minister himself was talking about in February 2024, when he delivered his Budget Speech for the 2024/2025 financial year. He had said Eswatini was poised for growth, and the budget he was presenting, if well executed and with the support of the nation, could grow the economy considerably.
“There is no one silver bullet that is going to save us,” the minister said then.
“It is going to require doing many things well: Continuing to cut unnecessary and wasteful expenditure, completing all outstanding capital projects and starting new capital projects that will give us good returns.”
This is exactly the mindset Cabinet needs to revisit; that of cutting unnecessary and wasteful expenditure. While unproductive civil servants and those who have reached retirement age should leave as soon as yesterday, I do not want to believe that the wage bill is the only budgetary item where cuts need to be made.
Since February 2024, which other areas has government identified as contributing to unnecessary and wasteful expenditure?
That said, one wonders how many of the 3 200 ineligible workers are in the security cluster, which is known to gobble a huge chuck of the wage bill cake each year.
It is such questions that MPs should be demanding answers to – and asking for receipts.
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