Public sector wage bill set to balloon as municipal managers earn more
The DA will today write to the Portfolio Committee Chairperson on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Richard Mdakane, to request that he call Minister Pravin Gordhan to brief the committee on the rationale for the wage increases for municipal managers and directors and affordability thereof to Municipalities.
Municipal managers and senior staff in local authorities are set to enjoy salary increases following the recategorisation of Municipalities by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. The increases will result in some salary packages exceeding 40%.
This is the third remuneration adjustment for senior municipal officials in less than a year. It is a major concern that most Municipalities are spending a bigger proportion of their total income on paying salaries. These pay hikes must come with more responsibility and officials must be held accountable if they fail to deliver. Contracts of municipal managers must be linked to the delivery of services, and salaries should be based on affordability to the relevant local municipality.
Money should rather be given to Municipalities for the betterment of service delivery projects, instead of increasing the salaries municipal officials.
To make matters worse, the Auditor General of South Africa in the latest Consolidated General Report on the Audit Outcomes of Local Government, revealed that a fifth of the country’s municipal managers currently do not even meet the minimum competency requirements.
The DA would ensure that all municipal officials meet the minimum competency levels before they are hired - competency testing as part of the selection process for public sector employees (especially on a senior management level) is of utmost importance, and those who are already in position would be moved into positions more suitable to their qualifications and skills.
It is unjustifiable that the new municipal mangers in category 8-9 Municipalities may earn up to R3.3 million.
South Africa desperately needs competent, effective and efficient officials in the public service in order to make local government – the most direct and accessible form of government for most South Africans - work.
The public sector wage bill currently stands at an astonishing R400 billion. The projected total for the 2016/17 financial year will R430 billion - this represents 35,5% of the governments total budget.
South Africa can simply not afford a public wage bill that continues to balloon unabated.
Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 9 September 2015
