Thousands of ex-councillors still waiting to be paid by Des van Rooyen’s department
More than 4,000 former councillors have yet to be paid their “once-off gratuity” following the August local government elections, the Ministry of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs has said.
Responding to a parliamentary written question from Democratic Alliance MP Kevin Mileham, Minister Des van Rooyen said the payment process had already started.
Over R300m had been set aside to pay the more than 5,000 councillors who did not return to office after the elections.
The total amount that would be paid out would be determined after the payments had been finalised, the minister said in his reply.
“The department is busy with the necessary preparations, calculations and verification of the payments to eligible non-returning councillors. An amount of R309m was appropriated for this purpose. As at 28 November 2016, more than 4 000 former councillors still need to receive their gratuities,” he said.
They had had to wait for the Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers’ recommendations before they started with the process.
The commission had recommended that only non-returning councillors who served for at least 24 consecutive months prior to the election were eligible to receive the “once-off gratuity payment”.
The payments would be based on basic salaries and not annual total remuneration packages, the commission said.
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