Mail & Guardian reports that 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 to get a 4% salary increase, backdated until 1 July last year.
Municipalities were battling with nonpayment and were in a precarious financial position even before the Covid-19 outbreak. Both the eThekwini and Cape Town metropolitan councils have already approved the increase in their 2020-2021 budgets, accepting and applying the upper limits for remuneration of elected municipal officials gazetted on 24 April. Municipalities also face a 6.5% hike for staff, which is part of a three-year national agreement. The 4% salary increase means metro mayors will now be paid R1,404,260 a year. More than 9,000 councillors in SA’s 278 municipalities will benefit from the increase. The hike applies to all councillors, full-time and part-time, and includes 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.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Paddy Harper at Mail & Guardian
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