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The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration today welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, to institute three critical spending reviews aimed at improving the efficiency, integrity and developmental impact of government expenditure.

The reviews, announced during the minister's budget vote debate, will focus on standardising the remuneration of executives and board members of public entities, auditing and eliminating ghost workers and investigating the persistent underspending and delivery failures associated with infrastructure conditional grants at the provincial and municipal levels.

The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Jan de Villiers, said these reviews are not only welcome but long overdue. They echo the committee's consistent calls for a professionalised public service, one that is results-based, provides value for public money, and adopts a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, waste and political patronage. “We support the development of a standardised remuneration framework for public entity executives and board members. Salaries must be fair, transparent and directly linked to the entity's mandate, complexity and performance. There can be no justification for exorbitant pay packages where service delivery is in crisis or entities are failing,” said Mr de Villiers.

On the issue of ghost workers, the Chairperson reaffirmed the committee's view that this is not a minor administrative flaw but a form of organised, systemic corruption that siphons off public funds and undermines trust in the state. “These are not invisible names on paper – these are real funds stolen from the public. The committee calls for these audits to lead to consequences. We want to see prosecutions, dismissals and systemic reform. The committee will continue to monitor this process closely, and a joint oversight meeting with Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025,” he said.

The committee also welcomed broader government efforts to professionalise the state, including the digitisation of human resource and payroll systems, the introduction of lifestyle audits and the rollout of skills audits within departments. This followed a briefing by the DPSA and the National School of Government this morning on government's progress in digitising the public service and aligning training and upskilling with departmental needs.

“The creation of a professional, merit-based and non-partisan public service is both constitutionally mandated and essential to improving service delivery for all South Africans. Skills audits are particularly critical as they allow us to assess whether departments are staffed appropriately and whether officials have the qualifications and competencies needed to fulfil their mandates,” said Mr de Villiers.

Responding to this morning's briefing, the Chairperson said digitisation and upskilling will help empower officials and drive improved service delivery, particularly in under-resourced areas. “We must know not just who is employed in the public service, but whether they are fit for purpose. Skills audits, alongside digital transformation and standardised pay, create an opportunity to reconfigure departments to meet the needs of the public better. Where upskilling is required, it must be supported. Where restructuring is needed, it must be done responsibly,” he said.

The committee remains committed to actively overseeing these reviews, focusing on results rather than rhetoric. We are planning a joint meeting with the Department of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury in the third quarter of 2025 to obtain further updates, including a detailed progress update on the ghost worker audit, implementation of lifestyle audits and alignment between performance and pay in the public sector, as well as consequence management for those involved in fraud and maladministration.

“We will not allow these reviews to become another policy gesture. They must be executed with urgency, rigour and public accountability,” the Chairperson said.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.

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The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Jürg Lauber (Switzerland), has announced the appointment of Mr. Max du Plessis of South Africa to serve as an independent member of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. du Plessis replaces Ms. Shaheen Sardar Ali of Pakistan on the three-member investigative panel and joins Ms. Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and Ms. Viviana Krsticevic of Argentina. Ms. Hossain serves as chair of the Fact-Finding Mission.

The Human Rights Council established the Fact-Finding Mission with resolution S-35/1 of 24 November 2022, adopted at a special session, to “investigate alleged human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022, especially with respect to women and children”. The three-person Mission was further requested to “establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged violations and collect, consolidate and analyse evidence of such violations and preserve evidence, including in view of cooperation in any legal proceedings”.

The mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission was subsequently extended for one year with resolution 55/19 of 4 April 2024 entitled “Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” 

In April 2025, with its resolution 58/21, the Council extended the Fact-Finding Mission's mandate for an additional year and expanded its scope to, among other things, thoroughly and independently monitor and investigate allegations of recent and ongoing serious human rights violations in Iran. This resolution requests the Fact-Finding Mission to present a report to the Human Rights Council at its 61st session in February/March 2026, and to present an oral update, to be followed by an interactive dialogue, to the United Nations General Assembly at its 80th session (2025-2026).

Mr. du Plessis is a South African barrister and academic whose career has been characterised by his involvement on justice and human rights issues. He has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of South Africa and the University of Natal (South Africa), completed his Master of Laws at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and completed his PhD studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).

His legal career began in 2000 when he became an advocate at the High Court of South Africa. His expertise in international, administrative, and constitutional law lead to a role as a senior research fellow in the International Crime in Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies. Mr. du Plessis has practiced law in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has been a visiting expert at the International Criminal Court.

Throughout his career Mr. du Plessis has been an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University. He also served as a visiting professor at Law Futures Centre, Griffith University (Australia), Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (United Kingdom), St. John's College, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), the London School of Economics (United Kingdom), Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University (United States), and others.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).