Remuneration of Councillors is determined on national government level, but it is up to the local council to decide whether to take up the maximum allowed salaries, allowances and other benefits or not.
Such a decision was taken by the Saldanha Bay Council (SBM) on Monday 15 January during a Special Council meeting, the first for 2018. Although it is entirely up to the council to decide whether to take the full remuneration or not, I as the representative of the Saldanha Bay Residents Alliance, feel it sends out the wrong message to the ratepayer. I can only fairly and reasonably justify this, if Council had taken a pay increase, marginally equal to what they have scored.
The decision by the majority of Council is totally legit, but one has to ask the question if it is equally morally justifiable.
The lower and upper limits of a local municipality are determined by its category, depending on such a municipality’s total population and total municipal income.
SBM became a Category 4 municipality during 2017, mainly due to an increase in the population in their service area, which is now just over 111 000 and their total income. This increase landed the municipality in the 100 001 to 250 000 bracket and scored 25 points.
Municipalities with an income between R200 million and R1,5 billion score 33,33 points. SBM’s total income for the 2016-’17 financial year, was just short of R850 million — enough to qualify for the 33,33 points. With a total score of 58,33.
Council has approved the following: R3 400 per month for cellphone allowances and R300 per month on data bundles.
The total upper limits on salaries including the cellphone and data bundles for councillors are as follows:
Executive Mayor: R870 814 per annum
Deputy Mayor and Speaker: R705 529 per annum
Executive Committee: R664 211 per annum
Section 79 Chairperson (part-time): R380 030 per annum
Part time Councillors: R305 929 per annum
The total cost for the ratepayer is R11 489 million per annum for 27 councillors of which R5,6 million is allocated to the top eight positions.
This proposal was carried by the majority vote of 25 councillors consisting of the DA and ANC councillors.
I opposed the vote to be recorded. The representative from the EFF was absent.
Unfortunately councillors’ remuneration is not based on productivity or performance, but rather on the score card system, taking only the income and total population of a municipality into account.
I have a moral challenge and difficulty telling the ratepayers that council cannot fulfil their demands due to budget constraints, but meanwhile we feast at the troughs to the full.
. This is an opinion piece by Jaco Kotzé, a representative of the Saldanha Bay Residents Alliance and Proportional Councillor in the SBM. As Weslander was not informed of the Special Council Meeting, we could not attend. At the time of going to print the minutes of the meeting was not yet available. — ed.
