The president and Cabinet dropped their salaries and rejected a hike, but councillors take 4% more
At a time when hundreds of thousands of people are battling to cope with salary cuts and job losses because of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown measures, town and city councillors are getting a 4% salary increase, backdated until July 1 last year.
More than 9 000 councillors in South Africa’s 278 municipalities will benefit from the increases. The hike applies to all councillors, full-time and part-time, and include increases to daily allowances for attending council meetings, which are now pegged at R1 103 for each council function. Other allowances, including for data, cellphones and transport, have also been increased.
Dudley’s proposal, contained in a proposed amendment to the council’s budget recommendations, also recommended that councillors take a 10% cut on their existing salaries and that the funds be channelled to service delivery. It was defeated by a margin of 180 to 42. The move came despite warnings by eThekwini chief financial officer Krish Kumar, at a webinar with business last month, that the city would have only six days cash in hand at the end of June and was unlikely to be able to meet its salary bill.
She said the DA’s lawyers have served the city with notice of the party’s intention to challenge the legality of the council meeting, held virtually on Microsoft Teams, because she was repeatedly muted when she tried to address the budget meeting.
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