Beware the increasing power of municipal bureaucrats
8 June 2020
The stranglehold municipal servants have on the wallets of property owners in Cape Town has never been more clearly demonstrated than in the City’s 2020/21 budget, passed with ridiculous ease by the Council last week.
Indeed, there was the whiff of contempt for ratepayers Capetonians have come to expect and another dose of local authority nannyism on the back of the Covid-19 epidemic that has added thousands to the ranks of homeless, unemployed, and hungry Capetonians.
This spreading of other people’s money is not begrudged by those in the private sector who actually make money, own property (mortgaged or not) and do not enjoy the sheltered employment of municipal employees.
What they do object to – and in increasing numbers, as the next local elections will probably show – is how officials bragged about how much money the City had been compelled to cut in the face of the emergency, while leaving untouched their salaries that will increase by a hefty 6.24%. Performance bonuses – also trimmed with much accompanying fanfare – are not a salary right, in the private sector at least.