Mawande Jack

Sick leave abuse by government employees in the Eastern Cape has become so rife that service delivery is being undermined.

One of the departments known to be notorious for this practice is the department of local government affairs where 576 employees or 37% of the staff complement took sick leave in the 2010/11 financial year alone. It has been revealed in the legislature at Bhisho that R4.5m from 5484 days lost to sick leave was lost during that year.

“If one estimate that the average employee works a 22-day month for 11 months of a calendar year, then this equates to a loss of 23 years working days in a single year,” DA local government MEC Dacre Haddon said. The report found that stress was the fourth-highest cause of absenteeism.

mawandej@thenewage.co.za