Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Tuesday said the salaries of municipal managers ”in aggregate” were ”not awfully high”.
He was speaking at a media conference after the release of the Local Government Budgets and Expenditure Review at Parliament.
The report noted that the all-inclusive remuneration packages — including salary and benefits — of municipal managers in 2005/06 ranged from R155 424 to R1,3-million a year.
The average remuneration package paid to municipal managers was R605 733 per year with half — 142 — drawing annual salary packages that were less than the minimum salary packages of just over R558 000 paid to national and provincial chief directors.
But the report noted that senior municipal officials’ salaries varied widely across the three categories of municipalities — and even within the same category of municipality.
The annual salary packages of municipal managers in category A municipalities — metropolitan councils — ranged from R928 728 to R1,3-million. In category B municipalities — local councils — there were also wide variances, ranging from R155 424 a year to R1-million a year with an average salary of R563 453 a year.
The report said differences in the salary packages of senior municipal officials could be attributed to differences in size, fiscal capacity, powers and functions.
Salaries in category C municipalities — district municipalities — also varied widely ”for the same reasons”, the report said.
Salaries ranged from R475 000 rand a year to R1,3-million rand per year with the average salary being R748 952.
South Africa’s 284 municipalities employed 181 212 staff – 103 714 in the metros, 74 740 in the local municipalities and 2 758 in the district councils.
The average annual salary in a metro was R145 924, while it was R110 017 in the average local municipality and R194 610 in a district council.
The report noted that the variations for municipal managers ”pose a serious challenge to the creation of a unified public service. Some variations can be justified on the basis of the volume and degree of complexity involved in running a metropolitan municipality compared with managing a small, rural municipality. However, the wide variations in the salary scales of employees in similar-sized municipalities are hard to explain.”
The minister said, however, these levels were not as high ”as meets the eye” as the municipal managers were responsible for both the expenditure and revenue side of their councils’ budgets. — I-Net Bridge