Tshwane metro municipal manager earns more than President Zuma

06 July 2016 - 10:07 By Bianca Capazorio

Tshwane metro municipal manager Jason Ngobeni is the country's highest paid civil servant‚ with his R3-million annual salary package out-earning the president‚ deputy president and cabinet ministers. The municipal manager of cash-strapped Gauteng local municipality Emfuleni‚ Yunus Chamda‚ is earning R2.4-million annually despite the fact that the auditor-general expressed reservations about the municipality's ability to continue as a going concern in its last annual report.President Jacob Zuma earns R2.8-million annually. Ministers in his cabinet earn around R2.3-million while provincial premiers earn about R2.1-million.The 2014/15 salaries of almost all of the country's municipal managers were contained in a response by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to a parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance's Nomsa Marchesi.Ngobeni was appointed to the post in 2011‚ and even then‚ was out-earning the president. Officials at the time said that a favourable salary package needed to be offered in a bid to secure him and retain him in the position.Other metro municipal managers salaries range between R1.9-million for Buffalo City and R2.8 million for Ekhuruleni. The eThekwini and Mangaung municipal managers' packages are on par at around R2.4 million each while the City of Cape Town municipal manager earns just over R2.2 million. The Johannesburg municipal manager takes home R2.6 million annually.In Nelson Mandela Bay‚ the position‚ which comes with a salary package of R2-million‚ is vacant.Salaries for municipal managers in district municipalities vary between around R1-million to R1.5-million‚ while in local muncipalities municipal managers' salaries vary wildly from the R425 000 paid to Bela-Bela's to around R1.8-million.Chamda's R2.4-million annual package is the highest paid to a local municipal manager. His salary is nearly double that of the municipal manager for the Sedibeng district municipal manager (R1.4-million) under which Emfuleni falls.Few municipal managers were paid performance bonuses‚ but the Sedibeng and Fezile Dabi district municipalities did give theirs R233 000 and R254 000 respectively.Some municipalities in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga had not yet submitted their figures‚ Cogta Minister Des van Rooyen said in his response.TMG Parliament..

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