The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) has called for consequence management after the KwaZulu-Natal department of education allegedly withdrew approvals previously granted to educators for early retirement packages, citing financial constraints.
This is despite the National Treasury allocating R1.76bn in additional funding to provinces in the 2025/26 fiscal year for early retirement and voluntary exit programmes.
The federation called on KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli and education MEC Sipho Hlomuka to intervene and hold those responsible accountable.
“The provincial leadership must ensure that every retirement approval already issued by the department of basic education is honoured in full,” Fedusa said in a statement.
“Employees cannot be expected to reverse life decisions made on the basis of official government communication. The federation further calls for a comprehensive internal accountability process to determine how applications were invited, processed and approved without confirmed financial provision. Those responsible for exposing workers to this level of uncertainty must be held accountable.”
Targeting 30,000 employees aged 55-59, it allows for retirement without reduced benefits. The initiative aims to save the fiscus R2bn, though unions have warned of skills losses, especially in the health and education sectors.
The sudden withdrawal of those approvals reflects administrative irresponsibility and a failure of sound governance.
— Fedusa
The programme for eligible employees was also introduced by the Treasury in October 2025 to rejuvenate the public service, manage the public service wage bill and enable the restructuring of departments to improve service delivery.
The proposed additional allocations to provinces are: Eastern Cape, R367m; Free State, R217.4m; Gauteng, R359.6m; KwaZulu-Natal, R143.4m; Limpopo, R200m; Mpumalanga, R84m; Northern Cape, R97m; North West, R38m; and Western Cape, R251m.
In its Budget Review the Treasury said 7,687 applications from eligible employees were approved in the first phase. Of those, 4,644 related to provincial departments and the rest to national departments.
The total cost of the early retirements, the review says, amounts to R3.7bn and an estimated R5.5bn net savings, of which R2.9bn will be realised in 2026/27, R1.4bn in 2027/28 and R1.5bn in 2028/29.
Responding to Business Day questions, the Treasury said 7,687 applications were approved with an allocation of R3.7bn already released to the departments.
“Post finalisation of the budget, National Treasury further approved 416 applications, taking the total to 8,103 with a total cost of R3.9bn that is already committed,” the Treasury said.
“Most of these employees will be exiting by March 31 2026. This excludes the R439m allocated to defence in the 2025 MTBPS [medium-term budget policy statement], which is expected to exit between 700 and 1,000 eligible SANDF members.”
Fedusa said the withdrawal by the provincial education department constituted a breach of trust between the employer and employees.
“Public servants who have devoted decades of service to the education system responded to a government invitation to apply for early retirement.
“Many employees structured their financial affairs, family arrangements and professional transitions on the basis of approvals formally issued by the department. The sudden withdrawal of those approvals reflects administrative irresponsibility and a failure of sound governance,” it said.
The federation said it would continue to monitor engagements with the provincial department closely: “Should provincial leadership fail to intervene decisively, the federation will pursue every lawful avenue available to defend the rights and dignity of affected workers.”
Provincial departmental spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cosatu national spokesperson Zanele Sabela said the labour federation was not expecting a “big take-up, as most [of our members] won’t want to retire early because their monthly pension payout will be less than their salary. As a federation, we are also concerned about loss of skill and experience.”
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