Government is to double the salaries of councillors and mayors across the country as part of its plan to enhance performance and improve the functioning of local government.
Where small revenue streams might mean that some rural municipalities might struggle to pay the salaries, the Department of Provincial and Local Government has allocated R600-million to assist.
Although the different grade municipalities determine their specific salaries, the government sets a framework. Under the latest proposals, the government will double the pay of metropolitan mayors to a maximum of R680 152, to equal the salaries of provincial ministers.
The new scales, which also affect deputy mayors, whips, speakers, members of mayoral and executive committees and councillors, were announced in a Government Gazette on the eve of the local elections.
The government has also introduced a rural allowance designed to lure engineers, project managers, financial and information technology staff and artisans — skills that were identified as scarce in a countrywide local government skills audit.
In terms of the new scales, deputy mayors, whips and speakers will get R544 122 a year and full-time metro councillors, serving on mayoral or executive committees will get R510 114. In addition, all but the mayor will receive a travel allowance, mileage for private car use over 500km and a monthly R2 115 cellphone benefit.
Part-time councillors, including ward representatives, will receive just over R230 000 a year.
A notice issued on November 14 last year had pegged maximum annual incomes at R358 967 for mayors, R323 070 for deputy mayors and R287 174 for members of executive or mayoral committees. In 2000 mayors earned no more than R200 000.
A sum of R600-million was allocated to the Department of Provincial and Local Government in this year’s Budget and will assist in implementing the new pay scales in poorer councils, including Grade 1 councils which lack their own revenue bases. Proposed income levels in Grade 1 municipalities are set at R373 678 for mayors, R298 942 for their deputies and speakers, R280 259 for full-time executive members and R112 103 for part-time councillors.
The rationale behind these increases is government’s renewed drive to bolster local government capacity to ensure the country’s service delivery backlogs are addressed by 2011.
Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela, the Director General in the Department of Provincial and Local Government, said recently that a key departmental priority over the next five years would be ”strengthening and supporting the municipal political leadership”.
This, combined with building the technical capacity of municipalities through the appointment of skilled professionals, would require competitive remuneration in order to retain capacity at the local level, which has become synonymous with high staff turnovers and vacancy rates.
Msengana-Ndlela said the political leadership of councils ”should be remunerated at the level at which it should operate in terms of the functions of that municipality, the population and the needs that should be addressed”.