NUMSA STATEMENT ON IDC CEO IMMORAL SALARY OF R10.3 MILLION!
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) dismisses the excessive and unacceptable salary of R10.3 million paid to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Geoffrey Qhena.
According to the IDC's 2009 Annual Report, tabled in Parliament, CEO Qhena's basic salary was R2.673 million, incentive bonus R2.544 million, performance bonuses R4.392 million, and benefits such as medical aid, retirement fund and insurance contributions of R688, 000.
This excessive and immoral salary reinforces in the public sphere that occupying a key position of authority within the state-owned enterprises one is entitled to material gains and accumulation, as opposed meeting the developmental needs of our people especially those of workers and the poor. This salary paid to the IDC CEO is deplorable and an insult to other public representatives and ordinary workers who earn far less.
As Numsa, we strongly believe that the workers and the poor should mount a radical and militant campaign to put a stop on exorbitant public and private earned salaries which are reproducing apartheid and racialised income inequalities. We demand the IDC Board to review the salary of CEO Qhena in the interest of bailing-out the poor as a result of the global financial crisis.
We call on the Tripartite Alliance Secretariat to have an informed and structured discussion on this emerging new culture wherein state institutions are being irresponsibly used to amass wealth and dispense patronage to friends, spouses, relatives, in-laws and stooges. The inability by the Alliance Secretariat to have an honest and frank discussion on this matter it will reinforce in the public sphere that the movement is approving of this new alien cancer.
It should be noted that our revolution is bound to degenerate in the same manner other marvelous revolutions in Africa degenerated. Our neighbors Zimbabwe are a classic example where the ruling oligarchy used their positions of power and authority to loot public resources and funds for their own greediness and self-centered interests.
In the words of Chris Hani ‘the perks of a new government are not appealing to me. Everybody of course, would like to have a good job, a good salary, and that sort of thing. But for me, that is not the be-all of a struggle. What is important is the continuation of the struggle - and we must accept that the struggle is always continuing - under different conditions whether within parliament, or outside parliament, we shall begin to tackle the real problems of the country. And the real problems of the country are not whether one is in the cabinet, or a key minister, but what we do for social upliftment of the working masses of our country'.
These words of wisdom must find resonate in those entrusted with the responsibilities of power and authority on behalf of the working class and the poor. Public Office should not be used as cartel for one's material rewards and influence, but should be about tackling the real problems of poverty, service delivery, joblessness and underdevelopment for the benefit of the poor.
Statement issued by Castro Ngobese, NUMSA national spokesperson, October 16 2009
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