By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
ActionSA has slammed the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA) on their decision to vote for salary increases for councillors in the City of Johannesburg.
During the meeting of the council, the DA and ANC voted in support of the increases, while the EFF and ActionSA rejected it.
ActionSA said the increases were unjustified in the midst of problems facing Johannesburg.
But DA Johannesburg caucus leader Belinda Echeozonjoku said the party voted in favour of the upper limit report on salary increases with the ANC after considering a few things, such as councillors’ wellbeing and councillor training and development.
“DA councillors have been at the forefront to hold the executive accountable for service delivery that is collapsing and not just complaining in the media. We write letters to the mayor and do oversights unannounced,” said Echeozonjoku.
She said the reason why ActionSA voted against the report was that it has no “ward councillors that get attacked during the course of duty like DA ward councillors [who have] been physically assaulted”.
Echeozonjoku said the EFF was part of the government that bought the report to the council and approved it in the mayoral committee.
The salary increase comes months after the council approved a R80.9 billion 2023/24 budget. It also comes amid tariff hikes of 2% for property, 9.3% for water and sanitation each, an electricity tariff of 14.97%, and a refuse tariff increase of 7%.
The upper limits of the annual total remuneration packages of full-time councillors means Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda’s salary will increase from R1 446 388 to R1 501 351.
The Speaker will earn R1 212 520 (previously R1 168 131), a member of the executive committee, mayoral committee or whip will get R1 142 175 (previously R1 100 361) and the chairperson of the oversight committee will now get R1 108 670 (previously R1 068 083).
Meanwhile, the National Treasury announced cutbacks in a 15 August meeting in response to a worse growth outlook relative to what was expected in the 2023 budget.
“National Treasury should work with all government departments and relevant stakeholders in national government, as well as with provinces, to identify immediate measures to reduce the level of government spending and maintain a sustainable fiscal framework,” the Treasury said.
“Provinces are advised to introduce the same measures for their departments and public entities. National Treasury will soon engage with the South African Local Government Association and municipalities to implement similar measures.”
In response, Joburg Finance MMC Dada Morero said the municipality, and not the National Treasury, ran its own budget – adding that the increase was “quite small”.