Public servants earning double salaries as PR councillors

Hundreds of officials across SA have been drawing two salaries every month by working both as government employees and councillors.

In the Eastern Cape, 16 public servants have been accused of double dipping, including a school principal and several teachers, despite regulations introduced in 2021 prohibiting them from doing so.

In a parliamentary reply to a DA question, public service and administration minister Noxolo Kiviet said there were 245 public servants across SA serving as councillors in February.

Of the 16 councillors working in different municipalities throughout the Eastern Cape, 11 work for the provincial education department, three for the health department, and one each are with the public works and transport departments.

Though the names of the councillors were not provided in the minister’s reply, the Daily Dispatch was able to track down four who are teachers in the Mnquma, Mbhashe and Nyandeni local municipalities.

The four PR councillors are from the UDM, PAC and Batho Pele Movement.

One of the councillors is a principal at a junior secondary school in Willowvale.

The man, who serves as a PR councillor in the Mnquma municipality, confirmed he was an educationist, but asked to be interviewed once he was in a private space because he was travelling home “from school”.

The principal failed to answer his phone later.

A teacher who serves in the Mbhashe local municipality as a Batho Pele Movement PR councillor referred the reporter to the leadership of the party.

Party leader Veliswa Mvenya said: “This had been a policy of the ANC that councillors are not allowed to work as public servants.

“We fought this while I was with the DA.

“We had not been made aware that there are new regulations.”

UDM president Bantu Holomisa said the latest regulations lacked clarity.

In the parliamentary reply, the public service ministry said the affected departments had not provided reports of the actions taken against the public servants.

Holomisa said: “We have councillors in this country who are teachers.

“If that is not permissible, [UDM] councillors will have to step down as [councillors].

“This regulation has never been properly communicated down to people.”

PAC president Mzwanele Nyhontso said the party would take action against its councillors if they were found to be double dipping.

He, too, said the party was not aware of the latest regulations.

“In our interpretation [of the regulations], PR councillors are allowed to keep their state jobs if they have declared that to their employer.

“PR councillors go to the council from time to time. It’ sa part-time job for them.

“When I was a PR councillor [in Mnquma], there were a lot of PR councillors who were working as public servants. Some were from the DA,” Nyhontso said.

Provincial education spokesperson Mali Mtima said an investigation would be launched as “educators are not allowed to work as PR councillors while they are still in the employ of the department”.

“We were not aware that there are some of our educators who serve as PR councillors.

“Our educators are supposed to immediately declare to the department they have been elected as PR councillors, following which a process to terminate their employment would ensue,” Mtima said.

PR councillors, who earn an average of R350,000 a year, are considered part-time councillors and are expected to represent those who have elected them in the municipality, cooperating with other councillors to further the best interests of their communities.

They are also expected to communicate the needs of their constituents to the council and explain council processes to the community, as well as prepare and attend meetings, among other things. In September 2021, two months before the election of the current councillors, the department of public service and administration issued guidelines that public servants who contested as public representatives in the 2021 local government elections needed to resign once they were elected as councillors.

According to the regulations, public servants who have been elected as councillors are required to resign before the date they assume office once they have accepted positions in their municipalities.

The public service regulations also prohibit public servants from serving “as a parttime councillor in a municipality, as this will constitute conducting business with an organ of the state and contravention of the Public Service Code of Conduct”.