Pay hikes for mayors, speakers and councillors in South Africa – with big changes coming

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Velenkosini Hlabisa has adjusted the salary tables for South African mayors, speakers and mayoral executive council members.

In a gazette, Hlabisa changed the upper limits for salaries of top government officials by 3%.

While the national government does not determine the salaries for municipal managers—this is determined by the council in terms of their budget plans—it does set the limits for their salaries and pay.

Municipal employees’ salaries are based on a point system that considers municipal income and the population served by the municipality.

Typically, the bigger the municipality and the greater the population, the higher the salary for the mayor and other officials.

Municipalities are graded using a point system based on the following tables:

The number of points received from adding these two factors gives the municipal council a grade, outlined below:

The pay of mayors, deputy mayors, speakers, mayoral committee members, executives of sub-councils, and whips is determined using the table.

The table below outlines the upper limits of how much these government officials get paid based on their grade.

Other perks

• Car Allowance: Councillors can structure their salaries to include a car allowance, and may, with approval, use a municipal vehicle for official purposes. A councillor who uses their own privately used vehicle for official duties will be reimbursed for the official kilometres travelled.

• Out-of-pocket expenses: A councillor may be reimbursed for reasonable and actual out-of-pocket expenses incurred during the execution of official or ceremonial duties.

• Phone allowance: A councillor may also receive a cell phone allowance of R3,600 per month in accordance with the applicable municipal council policy. The councillor may also receive an allowance on the use of data bundles not exceeding R317 per month.

• Special risk cover: The municipality must also take out risk insurance to cover the loss or damage to a councillor’s personal immovable or moveable property and assets, as well as life and disability cover, for any loss of damage caused by riot civil unrest, strike or public disorder. The special risk insurance for residential property is limited to R1.5 million and R750,000 for vehicles. The life and disability cover is limited to two times the total remuneration package of the councillor.

Any place where a councillor has been overpaid in terms of the regulations, it is up to the municipality to recover those payments.

Pay increases

The changes in pay for local government officials can be found below. The salary increases are 3.0% across all positions. These are effective June 2023.

Executive Mayor

Speaker, Executive Deputy Mayor or Deputy Mayor

Member of the Executive Mayorial Committee, Whip or Chairperson of a Subcouncil

Chairperson of Oversight Committee

The official salary changes can be found here.

Not included in the gazette but available in other documentation are the salaries of councillors. These are outlined below:

Councillor

Bigger increases coming

According to a comprehensive review of the remuneration of office bearers, local government officials are generally underpaid when considering salary relativity (factoring in roles, responsibilities, international benchmarking and market analysis).

The report found, for example, that the salary relativity for Grade 6 mayors is around R1.93 million, compared to the R1.55 million they will get paid for 2023/24.

The projected pay for 2024/25 is R1.59 million (a 2.5% increase), but the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers is making a recommendation that it instead be hiked 12% to R1.78 million to reflect the market reality.

“The Mayor of a grade 6 municipality will have an anchor salary of R1,930,493. However, the Mayor of a grade 2 municipality will have an anchor salary of R1,082,312. Due to the huge gap between the current salary of Executive Mayor and the salary relativity, the Commission increased the current salary by 7% and made a further 5% adjustment to arrive at a recommended salary,” it said.

All other salaries below the Executive Mayor were increased and adjusted accordingly by 7% and 5% in its recommendations.

Councillors, for example, have a salary relativity of R1.075 million (grade 6), with the commission recommending a 12% hike to R666,922 to bring it close to that level.

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