Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle yesterday urged thousands of provincial civil servants sitting at home on prolonged sick leave while getting paid, “to do the right thing and resign”.
Masualle said it was unfair of them to earn salaries while the province was engulfed in huge numbers of unemployed youth.
He said it was not right that thousands of civil servants were on prolonged sick leave, some for a period of over six years, while government continued to pay them.
Masualle said this was tantamount to them “draining the shrinking provincial fiscus”.
Yesterday the Dispatch reported that 32000 officials had been on extended sick leave for periods ranging between three months and over six years.
It was also reported that the provincial government had been made aware that some were running private businesses while still on the government payroll, forcing the province to establish a task team to investigate such cases.
Provincial government spokesman Sizwe Kupelo yesterday said the exact number of officials on sick leave for over six years was 12100.
Masualle said many young people were unemployed.
“It cannot be right that people sit at home doing nothing, whilst government has to pay them.
“Do the right thing and resign so we can create space for your children to provide new blood and new ideas to our government.
“It is very selfish to continue looking at creative ways of seeking to beat the system when we have so much youth unemployment.”
He gave his MECs until March 15 to provide him with reports.
“I have called upon all MECs to look with a fine toothed comb in their personnel lists for those employees that are being paid for being at home, those draining the shrinking provincial fiscus whilst their own young and qualified children are unemployed,” he said.
Addressing MPLs, Masualle said UDM MPL Max Mhlathi’s utterances that the province was “a failed state”, were incorrect.
“We do not have the makings of a failed state as defined by Noam Chomsky in his book called Failed States,” he said.
“I agree though with sentiments shared by many about the need for more agility and urgency in implementation of our plans.”
Masualle also dispelled sentiments that his government was “not interested” in improving the education system.
Premier tells ‘sick staff’ to resign
Masualle said it was unfair of them to earn salaries while the province was engulfed in huge numbers of unemployed youth.
He said it was not right that thousands of civil servants were on prolonged sick leave, some for a period of over six years, while government continued to pay them.
Masualle said this was tantamount to them “draining the shrinking provincial fiscus”.
Yesterday the Dispatch reported that 32000 officials had been on extended sick leave for periods ranging between three months and over six years.
It was also reported that the provincial government had been made aware that some were running private businesses while still on the government payroll, forcing the province to establish a task team to investigate such cases.
Provincial government spokesman Sizwe Kupelo yesterday said the exact number of officials on sick leave for over six years was 12100.
Masualle said many young people were unemployed.
“It cannot be right that people sit at home doing nothing, whilst government has to pay them.
“Do the right thing and resign so we can create space for your children to provide new blood and new ideas to our government.
“It is very selfish to continue looking at creative ways of seeking to beat the system when we have so much youth unemployment.”
He gave his MECs until March 15 to provide him with reports.
“I have called upon all MECs to look with a fine toothed comb in their personnel lists for those employees that are being paid for being at home, those draining the shrinking provincial fiscus whilst their own young and qualified children are unemployed,” he said.
Addressing MPLs, Masualle said UDM MPL Max Mhlathi’s utterances that the province was “a failed state”, were incorrect.
“We do not have the makings of a failed state as defined by Noam Chomsky in his book called Failed States,” he said.
“I agree though with sentiments shared by many about the need for more agility and urgency in implementation of our plans.”
Masualle also dispelled sentiments that his government was “not interested” in improving the education system.
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