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Cape Town - Based on reports received from provinces and national departments, the total cost of precautionary suspensions since 1 April 2016 has been R24 001 864.08 in national departments and R112 465 834.37 in provincial departments.
This means taxpayers coughed up almost R136.5m for these suspended employees sitting at home.
The Ministry of Public Service and Administration provided the data in response to a question by DA MP Desiree van der Walt in Parliament.
The ministry said based on the third quarter of the 2016/17 financial year, statistical reports received from provinces and national departments indicated that 45 employees were on precautionary suspension in national departments and 24 employees in provincial departments.
Of the employees on precautionary suspension in the provinces 14 have been so for more than six months but less than one year; 4 for more than one year but less than two years; and 5 for two years and more.
Van der Walt said in a statement that the payments to the suspended employees are made because departments fail to finalise disciplinary cases.
In Van der Walt's view, the money should rather be spent on skills development or internship programmes for millions of unemployed people.
Netwerk24 reported that Public Service and Administration Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi indicated last year that by September 2016 there were 292 public servants who had been suspended for more than 60 days and that by that time it already cost taxpayers R33m.
Ramatlhodi also said earlier that disciplinary cases should normally not take longer than 90 days to finalise. Special units with labour experts had been created in order to finalise disciplinary processes faster.
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