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.