PAUL Hoffman’s brilliant observation (Making legal costs personal would reduce silly state cases, August 15) needs to be underlined. Our government has indeed luxuriously litigated over many years because costs are not an issue to them.

Our state officials don’t look at the consequences of a negative judgment and, therefore, don’t make reasoned decisions when entering into the labour law arena. With monotonous regularity, we read about senior staff who have been placed on paid suspension pending the outcome of disciplinary hearings. If this happened in the private sector, the managers would be taken to task immediately.

Michael Bagraim, MP
DA labour spokesman