TOM EATON | R1m just to attend meetings is something to be ‘tone deaf’ about

Parliamentary spokesperson Moloto Mothapo has rejected accusations that MPs are being “tone deaf” by accepting a pay increase as millions of South Africans slide deeper into poverty. It’s a bold claim, but I have to agree with him, and if you’ll humour me, I’d like to explain why.

On Tuesday, Mothapo issued a statement defending the 3% pay hike, which will see MPs earning more than R1m a year, saying that while “certain media” were suggesting that the increase was “tone deaf”, “nothing could be further from the truth”.

First, said Mothapo, our MPs haven’t had an increase since April 2019.

Second, he explained, salary increases for South African MPs needed to be compared to the increases “of their counterparts globally, particularly in similar developing countries”.

“A desktop survey suggests that South African public representatives do not earn anywhere higher than those of countries with similar GDP and population”, he explained.

OK.

Sjoe.

I mean, where does one even start?

So MPs haven’t had an increase since 2019. And? Millions of South Africans haven’t had a pay cheque since 2019. Hell, millions of South Africans haven’t had a pay cheque ever.

As for comparing our MPs to those in other countries “with similar GDP and population”, I would need Motopho to explain, mostly because there are no countries that have a similar GDP and also a similar population: Egypt and Singapore have vaguely equivalent GDPs to us, but their respective populations are 102-million and 5.6-million.

There is an entire generation of bureaucrats that believes that people should be paid according to their job title, regardless of whether they do any actual work.

Besides, the only vaguely useful comparison in this instance would be between SA and another wealthy-ish country urgently trying to make itself poor through systemic corruption and mismanagement.

These specifics, however, are a distraction from the very basic fact that MPs exist for only two reasons: to represent their constituencies in parliament, and to make sure the country runs in such a way that citizens in those constituencies can reasonably expect to find employment, be relatively safe, have their children educated better than they were, and have access to good basic healthcare, clean water, electricity and public transport.

In SA, MPs don’t represent constituencies. As for the rest, well, we know how that’s going.

Of course, opposition MPs can only do so much: you can have the best economic — or education — plan in the world, but if you’re sitting opposite the ANC, all you can do is show up to meetings and explain why the state’s plan is shit.

ANC MPs, however, have overseen the dumpster fire of the last 10 years, gazing stupidly at the flames and wondering where it all went wrong, yet they still expect to be paid R1m just for being there.

Then again, the total disconnect between work and remuneration has been a hallmark of the ANC for decades. Thanks to Thabo Mbeki and his catastrophic policy of cadre deployment, there is an entire generation of bureaucrats that believes that people should be paid according to their job title, regardless of whether they do any actual work.

All of which brings me back to that initial accusation of “tone deafness”.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the term as “having or showing an obtuse insensitivity or lack of perception particularly in matters of public sentiment, opinion or taste”.

In other words, Mothapo is quite correct. MPs accepting a raise while children starve on their watch has very little to do with the sensitivity, perception, obtuseness, or being unable to read the prevailing political and social winds, because those are all human traits, and what we’re dealing with is something almost completely devoid of basic humanity.

Cyril Ramaphosa whining about how MPs are not able to make ends meet, as he did last year, or Mothapo implying that R1m really doesn’t go very far, isn’t tone deaf.

It’s obscene.