/ 18 March 1998

Provincial govts retrench

WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM:

THE Western Cape and Gauteng are envisaging drastically reducing the number of public servant’s posts in an attempt to cut down on spending.

The Western Cape wants to cut 10 000 jobs by the end of the year, leaving it with 70 000 public servants, said provincial Director-General Niel Barnard in Parliament on Tuesday.

This means the Western Cape provincial government will have slashed its workforce by 27% or 30000 posts since the 1994 election.

Meanwhile, Gauteng Finance MEC Jabu Moleketi says the province wants to cut its salary bill by 50% of its total expenditure, and will retrench public servants to achieve this goal.

Moleketi said, “government is not an employment agency”. “Once a retrenchment tool is in place, we will make use of it to become a more developmental government.” ha added.

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