The real work of nation building begins on the front line

News24

20-05-2025

The budget should serve the people. Yet, in too many South African communities, the teachers, nurses, and doctors who are needed most are not in the classrooms or clinics – they are unemployed, fighting for the chance to serve. The question is not whether the state employs too many people but rather whether it employs them where and when they are needed. This is the real challenge behind the politically contested public sector wage bill discourse: how do we invest in a workforce that actually builds our nation?
As the third iteration of the 2025 budget is tabled during Workers' Month, we are presented with a timely opportunity to shift the national conversation towards real solutions. The discourse around the public sector wage bill has become needlessly divisive at a moment when our country needs unity, clarity, and a government that brings people together.
'Bloated' public workforce vs frontline staff shortages
The public sector wage bill – sometimes criticised as 'bloated' – has in recent years become one of the most politically charged aspects of our national budget and often a scapegoat for the deep challenges facing public service delivery. As it accounts for around 35-40% of government spending, critics have increasingly pressured National Treasury to reduce it in the name of budget restraint and efficiency.
However, when one walks into any public clinic or school, the story on the ground is different. No one is complaining about too many doctors for the patients or too many teachers for the learners. If anything, the opposite is true: long queues, overworked nurses, and overcrowded classrooms have all undermined the quality and reach of basic services.
The contradiction is even clearer when placed alongside the country's mounting teacher, nurse and doctor shortages. As of 2024, there were over 30 000 teaching vacancies, nearly 16 000 nursing vacancies, and 1 800 vacant doctor posts in our public health system.
However, when one walks into any public clinic or school, the story on the ground is very different. No one is complaining about too many doctors for the patients or too many teachers for the learners. If anything, the opposite is true: long queues, overworked nurses, and overcrowded classrooms have all undermined the quality and reach of basic services. The contradiction is even clearer when placed alongside the country's mounting teacher, nurse and doctor shortages. As of 2024, there were over 30 000 teaching vacancies, nearly 16 000 nursing vacancies, and 1 800 vacant doctor posts in our public health system.
Clearly, something is off. Thousands of trained professionals remain unemployed, while the public services that rely on them are under extreme strain. The tension remains, though spending on public employees is perceived as too high for the value it delivers, yet frontline shortages in schools and clinics remain impossible to ignore.
A chance to finally get the public workforce right
South Africa doesn't necessarily have too many public workers, we have too few in the right places. The real issue is not the absolute size of the public sector wage bill, but its composition and effectiveness. While some state-owned enterprises and government departments have faced legitimate scrutiny for top-heavy wage structures, this critique does not apply across the board. In fact, labour-intensive services like education and health face the opposite imbalance: they are under-resourced at the frontline, weakening the quality of public services South Africans rely on.
Put differently: South Africa doesn't need a smaller public sector; we need a smarter one. One that prioritises frontline staffing, corrects structural imbalances, and ensures that every rand spent translates into better services for all. Budget 3.0 is a powerful opportunity to make this a reality.
A Budget 3.0 that builds a functioning public sector
In a bid to contain the public sector wage bill, the government has been blunt with a response characterised by ceilings, freezes on posts, and limiting headcounts of frontline services. However, this approach has come at a high cost with little to show for it. Rather than eliminating inefficiency, the government has effectively eroded the very frontline capacity our public services depend on – teachers, nurses, and doctors, while delivering little in the way of long-term savings or improved outcomes. The finance minister's welcome course correction acknowledges that the austerity, characterised by blunt measures like hiring freezes and headcount limitations, has not been effective in building a public sector that works for all. Schools and healthcare facilities face greater constraints in delivering quality public services for all, while wasteful and irregular spending continues without much recourse.
Now is the opportunity for the finance minister to table a budget that pays more than lip service towards course correction, not with symbolic cuts, but with strategic investment. A budget that builds a nation must take seriously the need to absorb skilled, unemployed professionals into our public sector. Not only will this reduce joblessness, but it will also restore the functionality of services people rely on every day.
Reinvesting in public services, the right way
Rather than blanket cuts, Treasury must adopt a targeted approach that protects and expands frontline posts in education and health, where human resource shortages are well-documented and the returns to nation-building are immediate. Despite the deeply regressive proposal of a VAT hike, Budgets 1.0 and 2.0 showed early signs of promise on the expenditure side, with commitments to strengthen basic education and health care. That momentum must be reinforced rather than being reversed.
This investment is not only urgent, but possible without resorting to a VAT hike. The now-scrapped VAT increase would have raised an estimated R11.5 billion this year, after accounting for zero-rating, but that same revenue space can be secured through more progressive means. As part of the Budget Justice Coalition (BJC), we have proposed alternatives that include targeting illicit financial flows and tax evasion (estimated at up to R800 billion), sustainably drawing on available reserves such as the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account (GFECRA) (R150-250 billion), and temporarily freezing GEPF contributions (R15-30 billion) as a stopgap for 2025/26 while longer-term reforms are pursued.
A meaningful response to fiscal pressure must begin with a top-down efficiency review to reduce bloated management layers and redirect resources to where they are most needed. Treasury should also reform budget structures to enable departments to prioritise service delivery and report on outcomes, not just spending. Finally, greater transparency around staffing, vacancies, and absorption rates can help rebuild public trust and ensure that budget decisions reflect both fairness and value. Budget 3.0 can be a turning point if it focuses on restoring the state's capacity to serve and shifting the public wage bill debate from cost to value.
Budget 3.0 is a test, not just of Treasury's numbers, but of its nation-building vision. In a moment of contention and contradiction, the government has the chance to table a budget that restores frontline capacity, affirms public dignity, and builds the South Africa we all deserve to live in.
Lencoasa is a budget analyst at SECTION27 and chairperson of the Budget Justice Coalition.