Public service and administration caretaker minister Nathi Mthethwa on Wednesday issued a veiled warning to public sector unions‚ warning against exhorbitant salary demands in current wage negotiations.

Delivering the department’s budget‚ Mthethwa also issued a stern warning to public servants‚ saying maladministration and inefficiency were holding government programmes back.

“As the public service‚ we need to start doing more with less‚ as taxpayers want to see efficiency and effectiveness in spending. We are cognisant that productivity in the public sector is just as important to economic performance of South Africa. Within this financial year we will address gaps in efficiency and effectiveness of measures through improving our performance measurement instruments‚” said Mthethwa.

Mthethwa’s remarks come as the state is locked in wage negotiations with public sector unions.

Although the government has not met union demands‚ it recently revised its wage offer to public servants who are demanding a 10% increase. It is now offering 7%‚ which is above inflation.

“We have to justify the number of employees recruited to the senior management level and hence are currently reviewing the post provisioning norms in order to ensure optimal utilisation of employees and personnel spend‚” said Mthethwa.

Shifting his focus to public servants‚ Mthethwa said they should see themselves as “servants of the public and not that the public is your servant”.

“It can’t be the other way around. The public service employment practices expect employees to reciprocate by coming to work on time and by serving the public in an exemplary manner. You must be beyond reproach as public servants‚” said Mthethwa.

The Inkatha Freedom Party’s Mkuleko Hlengwa said the “politicisation” of unions was the greatest threat to the professional functioning of the public service.

“The public service is no ordinary job‚ but rather a patriotic duty that makes or breaks the first step of alleviating the plight of our people‚” said Hlengwa.

Democratic Alliance MP Joe McGluwa said his party proposed reducing the public sector wage bill by R4.3-billion.

“South Africa currently employs approximately 3.1-million public servants across the various state-owned companies. The South African taxpayer already forks out an astonishing R430-billion every year for a bloated and ineffective public service‚” said McGluwa.