More cash? Time for officials to share pain
OH DEAR, the City needs more money. It was the front page lead in the Argus but why was it news? The City always “needs” more money.
For the past decade and a few more years, the residents of Cape Town have been subjected to above-inflation increases in rates and tariffs. For two decades the staff have received above-inflation wage increases. The executive directors of the municipal empire are all millionaires with salaries of R3 million a year and more.
Mayco members, sub-council chairpeople and councillors are all well paid. Where does the money come from? It comes from residents, service users, home owners and the companies which have invested heavily in the city, creating thousands of jobs.
The coronavirus has created one of the biggest crises since the plague and smallpox were wiped out, but who is feeling the pain? The short answer is the private sector and the people they employ. They are the ones who have had to close factories, cut production and send staff home.
The City, as Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson admits, has also sent people home. He says the cash offices have been closed, but no doubt the staff have been sent home on full pay, with 13th cheques to come. Share the pain, Lord Neilson.
One also wonders what traffic officers are doing in these “trafficless” days? What are the health inspectors doing now that the hotels and restaurants have closed their doors? And where have all the entrepreneurs gone? They are certainly not bothering the council with requests for planning permission for new projects or desperately trying to get building plans passed?
The fact is that the coronavirus has reduced municipal work in some areas and increased it in others.
My heart goes out to the frontline staff who work in the real world, like those in the health department who have the huge and now dangerous job of providing primary health care in the clinics the City runs so well. I have less sympathy for the well paid staff who inhabit the tower blocks, and other buildings where municipal power is concentrated, and who never come into contact with real people except via the internet and call centres.
And what of our well-paid councillors and civic leaders? In several decades of watching old and new councils running the City I have come to the conclusion that as the leaders become entrenched in the administration of the City, they become representatives of the municipal bureaucracy rather than the people who elected them.
In the real world people are losing their jobs, the value of pensions and investments are shrinking and many of the old vulnerables (like me) wonder what will become of us. It is time to share the pain.
Brian Joss suggested in an excellent letter to the Argus that councillors and Mayco members should sacrifice 25% of their pay to the cause. It would be a grand gesture and it would improve the credibility of public representatives. But will they? Set an example Lord Neilson. It’s called leadership.
I would go even further and suggest the millionaire executive directors do the same thing. As for 13th cheques. I would like to see the unions back a plan to pay them only to frontline municipal workers exposed to the real dangers of the virus. It is a time to share the pain and reward the brave.