Cape Town – The South African government has come under fire after it announced salary increases for politicians and other government officials.
According to The Citizen, the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers suggested a 3% salary increase for a number of top government and parliamentary positions, including ministers and their deputies, premiers, MECs, MPs, Members of Provincial Legislatures (MPLs), traditional leaders and judges.
President Cyril Ramaphosa approved the increases in a gazette published last week, the report said.
The salary hikes would be backdated to April 2021, said the report.
The decision came under much scrutiny from South Africans and other opposition parties who felt that the increase was insensitive to some workers who had not received salary increases for the past two years.
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But in a statement, Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo defended the pay increases, saying that the country’s public representatives were not highly paid when benchmarked against their international counterparts and had a lot of oversight responsibilities.
“In analysing and scrutinising the remuneration of public representatives, we must also benchmark it against those of their counterparts globally, particularly in similar developing countries. A desktop survey suggests that South African public representatives do not earn anywhere higher than those of countries with similar GDP and population, amongst other considerations.
“It is also worth noting that, as an additional safeguard, unlike in several other countries, South African MPs are barred from undertaking any other remunerative responsibilities outside of their parliamentary work. Should they take up such work, they are obligated to declare it for scrutiny in terms of the Ethics Code,” Mothapo said in a statement.
Take a look at some of the Twitter reactions below:
The same Cabinet Ministers, MP’s & President who kept their full salaries during lock-down have now awarded themselves salary increases at a time when millions of South Africans can barely survive. ??
— Simon Grindrod (@SimonPGrindrod) June 22, 2022
Ramaphosa agreed on 3% increase for government officials ?,am I missing something here,what does Stella Ndabeni Abrahams,Lindiwe Sisulu,Nkosazana DZ n others done to deserve this increase, should have been more like reduced salary n increment on performance basis
— TshepoT?? (@Tshepo11834355) June 20, 2022
Cyril Ramaphosa and his cabinet hate black people, How does he approve 3% salary increase of politicians who already earn more than enough while ordinary South Africans are facing unemployment?
— ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ (@YoungFeregamo) June 22, 2022
Why did you give your cabinet salary increases when the economy is this bad and they get all the allowances still? People deserving of such are lowest government employees which resort to “corruption” to make an extra buck just like…..
— Matlotleng Tsoku (@Mr_T_Matlotleng) June 21, 2022
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Picture: Facebook/ Cyril Ramaphosa
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
