The Mail & Guardian has received exclusive documents detailing IBA salary packages. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports
Chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Saci Macozoma, emphatically denied this week that a gravy train existed at the Independent Broadcasting Authority.
He said his committee would not be drawn into the salary issue and would not get involved in any investigation into the IBA’s salary packages.
“I don’t consider there to be a gravy train at all and reports in this regard are intended to create an unnecessary situation,” Macozoma said.
However, documents handed exclusively to the Mail & Guardian providing detailed accounts of the salaries paid into the banking accounts of IBA chairs, councillors, heads of departments and general workers, would seem to contradict him.
IBA co-chair Peter de Klerk earned R30 164,61 for the month of December after deductions, but including his 13th cheque. Dr Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane earned R30 252,88 for the same period.
Councillors also did well, with councillor William Lane earning R23 633,08, John Matisonn R24 331,27 and Lyndall Shope-Mafole earning R24 331,27.
Broadcast Monitoring Group head Bronwyn Keene- Young came out with R18 074,90 while IBA representative Amos Vilakazi earned R20 431,51. Head of the IBA library Ruth Muller earned R14 464,83. The IBA’s senior administrator, Harris Gxaweni, earned R21 605, 53, while Human Resources manager Tsepo Matubatuba earned R17 530,78. Head of Frequency Management Unit Koenie Schutte earned R18 173,07 and legal counsel for the IBA Glen Marques earned R13 700,99.
Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Minister Pallo Jordan summoned a meeting of the IBA co-chairs earlier this week to discuss their controversial salary packages and the authority’s R41,5-million budget proposal.
Jordan denied that he was addressing Parliament to discuss the regulatory body’s use of taxpayers’ money as reported in the Sunday Times, but said he would respond in writing to a question posed by the Democratic Party with regard to the IBA’s finances.
He said the IBA came forward with a budgetary proposal for R41-million for the coming year, but stressed that “no money has been handed out as yet”.
“I am considering the proposal but it is ultimately up to Parliament to accept or reject their proposal,” Jordan said.
Vilakazi said he believed the initial proposed budget for the current financial year had been cut down to R30-million and that there was to be no further discussion. He said the R30- million allocated budget was R6-million up on the regulatory body’s previous year’s budget.
As far as he knew, “nothing has to be decided since we already have a budget”.
As for councillors’ salary packages, Vilakazi said the authority will not conduct an investigation. “If there is an investigation, it will be by an independent body.”
IBA councillors have, however, assured Jordan that expenditures were audited as was customary in state institutions. The auditors’ report would be made available to the ministry when the IBA next reported to Jordan.
Two of the four nominees for the IBA’s councillors’ posts — which still have to be rubber-stamped by President Nelson Mandela — – said they could not say whether they would consider salary cuts because they didn’t know what their salaries would be.
Drama lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand Maishe Maponya suggested the question of salary cuts be put “to the current councillors and not to us nominated to replace them”.
“Maybe one should not be asking about salary cuts, but rather a cut-back on the alleged extravagances,” Maponya said.
Chairman of the Freedom of Expression Institute and member of Thabo Mbeki’s 10- member task team, Raymond Louw, is also one of the nominees for a councillor’s post. Louw said it was “extremely sad” that the IBA was brought into disrepute as a result of alleged lavish practices.
He said the issue had to be looked at critically and dealt with speedily. In response to salary cuts, Louw said neither his appointment nor his salary was officially confirmed, and, therefore, he could not fully comment on a possible salary cut. He added that the intensity of the job also had to be examined before cuts could be considered.
According to the statement released after the meeting between Jordan and the IBA, the authority’s chairs reported that their salaries were on par with those of directors general in the civil service — about R411 520 a year with benefits; while councillors earned R320 000 a year with benefits.