Sequestration, black-listing and repossession are being endured by many of the prosecutors leading South Africa's fight against crime - because the government has not implemented pay increases promised to them a year ago.
And angry National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) staff are now threatening industrial action that could prove devastating to South Africa's already faltering justice system.
Prosecutors were due on Monday to launch a nationwide "silent protest" against Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla's failure to raise their salaries by a promised 10,5 percent or implement the "occupational-specific dispensation", under which legal professionals should receive pay increases.
The protest - in which prosecutors will hang banners in Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban courts - comes after the union representing the government's legal brains, the Public Servants Association (PSA), formally declared a dispute with the NPA over Mabandla's failure to implement the salary increases.
Monday's public display of dissent also follows a confidential June 20 memo, leaked to NPA staff members, which revealed that Mabandla had agreed to the dispensation increases but had yet to obtain the budget for them from the Treasury.
Only two weeks before the release of this memo, NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe promised staff that "funding issues will not delay the implementation of the (dispensation)".
Ironically, the confidential memo acknowledges the NPA's "critical vacancy factor, its inability to attract and retain its scarce skills".
Mabandla, Mpshe and Justice Director-General Menzi Simelane also noted in the confidential memo that there was "growing labour unrest" among prosecutors over the non-implementation of the salary increases - which they said the NPA needed to address "as a matter of urgency".
The justice bosses' concerns are backed up by dozens of emails obtained by The Star, in which furious prosecutors threaten to take matters into their own hands with stayaways, go-slows and work-to-rule industrial action.
"I believe prosecutors will now consider seriously the issue of a stayaway in order to knock some sense into these people's head," wrote one prosecutor, whose name is known to The Star.
"We are not beggars It is time we demonstrate our power as workers."
It is understood that prosecutors were further infuriated by Mpshe's response to the release of the confidential memo.
In a July 25 email, he stated that any NPA staff who distributed the document would be guilty of an "offence". He also claimed that "disciplinary measures have been taken against the responsible persons".
Mpshe has in the past repeatedly apologised to his staff over the salary raise delays, blaming them on "factors beyond our control".
Speaking to The Star on Sunday, NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali described the financial troubles experienced by NPA staff, as a result of the implementation delays, as "unfortunate, undesirable and regrettable".
Declining to comment on whether the budget existed for the increases to be paid, he said: "While the delay is undesirable, the NPA is doing everything possible to safeguard the interests of our staff and keep them abreast of all current developments."