Salga boss in salary furore

03 December 2014 - 03:07 By Bianca Capazorio
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Pravin Gordhan. File photo
Pravin Gordhan. File photo
Image: Supplied

Amid concerns about the ever-growing wage bills of municipalities, it has emerged that the head of the SA Local Government Association earns in excess of R3.5-million.

Xolile George's pay package includes a R2.8-million guaranteed annual salary, with a further R700000 in "non-guaranteed" allowances and bonuses.

This included R370000 in "bonuses and performance-related payments", a R144000 car allowance, an R83333 cellphone allowance and a R102000 subsistence allowance. His basic salary alone means he earns more than President Jacob Zuma (R2.6-million).

His annual cellphone allowance would buy him about 50000 minutes of talk time.

But Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Pravin Gordhan, in his reply to a question by the IFP's Khatambala Sithole, had nothing but praise for George.

He said that in the eight years George had been in his post he had turned Salga around. After receiving audits containing disclaimers (signifying that the auditor was not given sufficient information to form an opinion) the association had received several successive unqualified (clean) audit reports.

But Sithole was not satisfied with the minister's response.

"There is no leadership and there is no capacity. But the people at Salga are getting a lot of money for doing nothing," Sithole said.

SA Municipal Workers Union spokesman Papikie Mohale said George's salary was "shocking and disturbing".

"The excessive money paid to municipal managers and CEOs should go to the communities instead of to people sitting in air-conditioned offices."

This year the department capped the salaries of municipal executive managers - and of Salga executives. The limit for the manager of a metropolitan municipality is R2.8-million.

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