While many South Africans complain bitterly about the rising cost of living — and apparent government inaction making it worse — ministers and their deputies have now become exempt from paying a cent for either water or electricity.
This decision, which has only come to light now, came into effect on April 13 this year around which time Eskom, that close-to-useless government-owned company struggling to keep the lights on, was given permission to increase the cost of electricity by 10%. It is now asking for further 30% increase.
Electricity is an input cost into many other products that keep our economy running and so its increase effectively means an increase in many other goods and services. As the rest of South Africa writhes in pain, noticing the diminishing value of their salaries, our representatives of the people are living it up — without a care, it seems. In the past, the ministerial handbook generously allowed them not to pay for anything up to R5,000 per month. This wasn’t enough! The change in benefits now mean our leaders, who earn about R2.4m per annum, never worry about their water and light bills.
It is these sort of things that make our leaders unable to relate to the daily challenges ordinary South Africans deal with. They become so disconnected you might think they come from another planet.
When the rest of us worry about the cost of electricity inverters or generators, our leaders don’t. When we worry about the rising cost of fuelling the generators, they can’t relate because they’re unaffected.
Not long ago, we commented about the outrageous decision by the public works department to not only install generators at the official residences of our cabinet members, but also to buy diesel for the generators that keep the lights on for ministers when the rest of society is intermittently plunged into darkness by Eskom.
What this means is that when the rest of us worry about the cost of electricity inverters or generators, our leaders don’t. When we worry about the rising cost of fuelling the generators, they can’t relate because they’re unaffected. These are the same people who, together with family members, get free airline tickets, free accommodation and are afforded luxury vehicles which, according to the Sunday Times, cost R19m between 2019 and 2021.
Further, our cabinet last year took a decision to not increase the salaries of civil servants because government was implementing austerity measures after revenue collection challenges whose roots could be traced to the global coronavirus pandemic. It was important, government said at the time, to be circumspect about how costs are managed as we waited for the economy to recover.
Yet the executive afforded itself a 3% increase backdated to April. The message this sent was that our leaders expected officials to tighten their belts but the same should not be expected of them. It is the same as expecting the rest of us to endure not just load-shedding, but increasing cost of diminished electricity supply while ministers and deputies remain unaffected.
It’s easy to see why politicians kill each other for positions when, ideally, being in positions of authority must imply a higher calling for those who are selfless, those who put the poor and weak ahead of themselves. Not our politicians. And it’s not as if we are surprised. It’s the shamelessness of our fat cat cabinet members that beggars belief. Is it your turn to eat at all cost?
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