Over 800 civil servants fired since 2010

On average 200 civil servants have been dismissed from work every year under Section 27 of the Public Service Act since its inception in 2010.This brings to 811 the total number of public servants summarily dismissed to date, Assistant Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Philip Makgalemele told parliament this week.

He told parliament that reasons for dismissals ranged from habitual or willful neglect of duty; persistent absence from work without permission; acts of theft, misappropriation of government property and willful dishonesty against government, another employee or client of government. “Of these 417 were permanent and pensionable and 394 were former industrial class employees. There are 114 employees who have litigated against their dismissals.

Out of these 26 have been reinstated,” said Makgalemele. Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe West, Dithapelo Keorapetse told BG News in an interview that it is “disappointing” for government to have dismissed such a high number of workers. “The statistics that the minister has given us means that on average they fire 200 employees per year. These numbers are alarming considering that historically it has always been difficult to dismiss civil servants. This indicates that we are dealing with a government that does not respect employees’ rights,” said the legislator.

He said they would engage trade unions to chart the way forward concerning the issue because they (unions) are also complaining at the manner in which government is dismissing employees. “It is shocking that the government has done this even though our public sector is very small. This shows that the current regime does not have dispute resolution mechanisms. We will engage with trade unions to seek further clarification from the minister about those who have been dismissed before the inception of the new act and compare the summary to see the trends,” he said.

Keorapetse said they were going to find out which of these offences were leading causes for dismissal of public servants. Out of this number Ministry of Health is the one leading with 222 employees dismissed followed by Ministry of Local Government and Education and Skills Development with 143 and 142 respectively.