R3.5m salary for Salga head
Staggering package slated as ‘lot of money for doing nothing’
AMID concerns around the growing municipal wage bill and calls from Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to cut back on spending, it has emerged that the head of the SA Local Government Association (Salga) earns more than R3.5-million a year.
This comes hot on the heels of revelations last month that National Empowerment Fund head Philiswe Mthethwa is being paid a R5-million annual salary, which includes various bonuses.
Salga chief executive Xolile George’s pay package includes a R2.8-million guaranteed salary, with a further R700 000 in “nonguaranteed” allowances and bonuses, which include R370 000 in “bonuses and performance-related payments”, a R144 000 car allowance, R83 333 cellphone allowance and R102 000 subsistence allowance.
His basic salary alone sees him earning more than President Jacob Zuma (R2.6-million) and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete and National Council of Provinces chairwoman Thandi Modise, who all earn R2.3-million.
A cabinet minister earns just more than R2-million a year.
George’s annual cellphone allowance would buy him in the region of 50 000 minutes of talk time.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his reply to a question by the IFP’s Khatambala Sithole: “The ministry and department do not take part in the recruitment, appointment and determination of salaries of Salga executives.
“The board of Salga, constituted by councillors elected at the annual meeting of Salga, determines the conditions of employment of executives.”
Gordhan said that in the eight years George had been in the post, he had managed to turn the organisation around from receiving audit disclaimers (the worst possible opinion) to several successive unqualified audits.
“Under his leadership as the administrative head, Salga has drastically improved in its governance, strategic direction, organisational performance, financial management and audit outcomes.”
George has about 20 years of administrative experience and holds a master’s degree in developmental economics and an executive MBA.
But Sithole said Gordhan’s response was not satisfactory.
“If you check the number of disclaimers municipalities are getting, you will see that they are failing to account,” he said. “There is no leadership and no capacity. But the people at Salga are getting a lot of money for doing nothing.”
Local government came under heavy fire this year when the auditor-general reported that only 9% of municipalities and municipal entities received clean audits.
SA Municipal Workers’ Union spokesman Papikie Mohale said the salary was shocking and disturbing. “What should happen is that the excessive money paid to municipal managers and chief executives should go into the communities instead of to people sitting in air-conditioned offices. They are not the ones cleaning the streets and making sure there is electricity and services in the communities.”
Mohale said the salary was not deserved as George and Salga had shown “arrogance and reluctance” in bargaining councils which meant that certain issues had still not been resolved.
Earlier this year, in a bid to normalise municipal salaries, the department published guidelines capping salaries for executive management.
The cap for a city manager at a metropolitan municipality was placed at R2.8-million, which George earns.
But these caps have only been placed on new recruits and do not affect those already employed.
Gordhan said in his reply that Salga would use these limits as a basis for its executive salaries, but also only for new recruits.
Salga spokeswoman Karen Reyneke said: “The salary of the chief executive officer is and continues to be disclosed to parliament.
“These government and financial compliance regulations are audited annually and reported to parliament by the auditor-general.
“Salga has for the last five years received three unqualified audits and two consecutive clean audits, and has recorded more than 96% of its annual performance in the audited financial period of 2013-14.
“The financial turnaround over the last financial years is a remarkable feat that has been publicly acknowledged and commended by relevant stakeholders, including parliament.”
Meanwhile, in response to another parliamentary question by the IFP, Gordhan said 195 municipalities had run up bills of R454-million for the use of consultants in the 2012-13 financial year.
Of these municipalities, 69 had received unqualified audits, 65 qualified ones, eight adverse audit opinions and 53 audit disclaimers.