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Sunday Times reports that parliament has quietly handed its CEO, Xolile George, a salary hike of almost 70%, taking his remuneration to a whopping R4.4m.
This despite insisting last year he would be earning much less than he had been as head of another government agency. Even as National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and NCOP chair Amos Masondo publicly agreed in June last year that George would be paid R2.6m a year, a caveat was added indicating that his salary would be reviewed within four months. At the time, Mapisa-Nqakula and Masondo told political parties and the public that George was happy to take a pay cut from his previous job as CEO of the SA Local Government Association (Salga) where he was paid more than R5m a year. However, within seven months, Mapisa-Nqakula and Masondo increased George’s salary to R4.4m a year, almost 70% more than the offer he accepted. It is not clear where the additional R1.8m came from as parliament did not respond to questions last week. George was appointed in June 2022 on a five-year fixed term contract. The position was advertised in March 2022 with a remuneration package of R2,604,661 a year, after the 2021 recruitment process was abandoned because parliament felt it couldn’t afford him. News of the salary hike has drawn sharp commentary from political parties and commentators, who have made the point that parliament symbolises accountability and is meant to enforce it throughout the public sphere. DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube described the salary revelations as “shocking” and said that, if true, they “prove that the speaker misled parliament — a deeply serious offence.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Andisiwe Makinana at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page