Speaker faces probe over CEO pay
Mapisa-Nqakula’s role in hiking salary of parliament secretary under scrutiny
● National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will be investigated by parliament’s powers and privileges committee over allegations she misled MPs about the salary of the institution’s administrative boss, Xolile George.
The Sunday Times can reveal that MapisaNqakula’s deputy, Lechesa Tsenoli, has referred the alleged contempt of parliament complaint by DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube to the committee.
Gwarube asked Tsenoli last month to refer his boss for investigation after this newspaper revealed that parliament’s political bosses Mapisa-Nqakula and chair of the National Council of Provinces Amos Masondo secretly hiked George’s salary by almost 70% to R4.4m a year.
“I have referred your complaint about allegations of conduct constituting contempt of parliament by the speaker with respect to a salary increase of the secretary to parliament, Mr X George, to the powers and privileges committee for consideration,” Tsenoli wrote to Gwarube on Friday.
The powers and privileges committee can discipline an MP for contempt of parliament and may impose sanctions ranging from a formal warning, a reprimand or suspension to a fine of about one month’s salary. The sanctions are prescribed in the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act which regulates MPs’ conduct.
Gwarube welcomed Tsenoli’s referral of the matter to the committee.
Gwarube wants the investigation to take place in a fully open and transparent manner.
The rules of the National Assembly state that meetings of the committee should be held in closed session when the committee considers a matter affecting a specific member and the committee regards that matter to be confidential, but if it considers the matters to be in the public interest it should be decided in an open meeting. Gwarube wrote to Tsenoli last month asking that he refer Mapisa-Nqakula’s conduct in awarding George an almost 70% salary increase to the powers and privileges committee, to investigate whether her conduct constituted contempt of parliament.
In the lead-up to George’s appointment on June 15 2022, various inquiries relating to his proposed remuneration package were raised in vain by various political parties from the opposition benches, she said.
At the time, the executive authority — Mapisa-Nqakula
and Masondo — informed the chief whips that George was willing to take a sizeable pay cut. He had been earning more than R5m a year as CEO of the South African Local Government Association — and it was indicated he would receive annual remuneration of about R2.6m, the highest notch of the advertised salary package for the position.
Parliament has defended the decision to increase George’s salary, saying it was informed by the recommendation of an “impartial” labour expert. “The decision to review Mr Xolile George’s remuneration package was thorough, objective, and in line with longstanding practices,” parliament said in the statement last month.
Gwarube said that labouring under the executive authority’s misrepresentation of George’s remuneration package, the motion for his appointment passed in both houses of parliament with the DA, EFF and FF Plus dissenting.
George’s remuneration and other incentives were not disclosed before parliament voted in the motion to appoint him.
“If these shocking revelations about the reported steep increase in George’s remuneration package by the executive authority are true, then the speaker and NCOP chair misled the chief whips and parliament, and should be rebuked for this serious offence,” Gwarube said.
She said it was her considered view that Mapisa-Nqakula had not only violated the code of ethics for members of the executive authority by allegedly improperly enriching George, but also the code of conduct by not acting in accordance with the public trust placed in her.
She contends that the speaker improperly influenced chief whips and MPs to endorse George’s appointment by fraudulently disclosing a much lower remuneration package, knowing that George’s remuneration package would be increased soon after his appointment.