Payroll microlenders brace for civil service job cuts

In his budget speech last month, Finance and Economic Development minister, Thapelo Matsheka said the government would review the size of public service in the upcoming fiscal year that starts on April 1, as a way of curbing the ‘unsustainable’ level of wage payouts. Already, an exercise is underway to abolish 50% of vacant civil service positions before April 1, as part of broader public sector reforms.

For the country’s microlenders, the impending initiatives come as a body blow, as many of the larger, established operators are dependent on deduction at source arrangements with the public service.