Zandile Gumede’s full-pay “jolly holiday” suspension is not good enough
28 August 2020
If the suspension on full pay of disgraced former eThekwini Mayor and newly sworn-in member of the KZN Provincial Legislature, Zandile Gumede, is the ANC’s idea of strong, principled action against corruption, then it deserves every derogatory Twitter hashtag directed towards it.
Gumede, who stands accused along with 17 others on charges relating to fraud to the value of more than R200 million, and is currently out on R50,000 bail, retains the full R1.1 million salary she has just been promoted to, while taxpayers will not see a single cent’s benefit for their money. Life, it seems, is indeed one long jolly holiday for the corrupt cadres of the ANC.
Just this week the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) released a report detailing the eye-watering amounts spent paying the salaries of suspended public servants in provincial governments and national government departments. In provincial governments alone the tally to date is R158 million. Between 1 October and 31 December last year, government spent R84 million on precautionary suspension cases, while it spent a further R74 million in the first three months of 2020.
This is clearly unacceptable, and makes a complete mockery of President Ramaphosa’s solemn vows that corruption will no longer be tolerated in his party – a tune he has been singing for years now with no effect at all. If the ANC continues to either redeploy its corrupt politicians – and even promote them, as we’ve seen in Gumede’s case – or simply pay them a full salary to stay at home, then these vows mean nothing.