{"id":263191,"date":"2018-08-06T08:29:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T06:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=263191"},"modified":"2018-08-06T08:29:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T06:29:42","slug":"south-africa-has-a-huge-number-of-traditional-leaders-heres-how-much-they-get-paid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/263191\/south-africa-has-a-huge-number-of-traditional-leaders-heres-how-much-they-get-paid\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa has a huge number of traditional leaders – here’s how much they get paid"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of a recent parliamentary Q&A session, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Des van Rooyen was asked how many traditional leaders there are in each province in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Traditional kings and senior leaders are symbolic figureheads in the country who carry little political power.<\/p>\n

However, these rulers play an important role in local disputes and often perform advisory roles to government, as well as in the lives of the traditional rural populations.<\/p>\n

According to Van Rooyen, as of June 2018 there are 14\u00a0kingships, queenships, and\/or principal traditional leaders in the country across five of South Africa’s provinces.<\/p>\n

In addition, there are 844 senior traditional leaders in the country across eight provinces (the Western Cape is not included) – with just two leaders based in Gauteng and as many as 277 in KwaZulu Natal.<\/p>\n

Kingships\/Queenships\/Principal Traditional Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Province<\/th>\nTotal number of traditional leaders<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Limpopo<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Free State<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mpumalanga<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KZN<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Eastern Cape<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n14<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Senior traditional leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Province<\/th>\nTotal number of traditional leaders<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Free State<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Northern Cape<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mpumalanga<\/td>\n56<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Limpopo<\/td>\n201<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North West<\/td>\n50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KZN<\/td>\n277<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gauteng<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Eastern Cape<\/td>\n238<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n844<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

How much they earn<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a pay freeze in 2017, the majority of traditional leaders saw their salaries<\/a> <\/strong>increase between 4.5% and 8% for the 2018 financial year. This is in line with the increases given to ministers, MPs and other senior members of government gazetted late last year.<\/p>\n

As of 2010, South Africa recognizes seven royal families in the country, after a recommendation by a traditional leadership commission that South Africa lose six of its kings and queens.<\/p>\n

Of the 13 recognised traditional kingdoms recognised previously, only seven will remain once the current incumbent rulers of the identified kingdoms have passed away.<\/p>\n

Extrapolating the data below, the South African government is paying around R250 million a year on senior traditional leader salaries, including kings and queens.<\/p>\n

Note: NHTL\u00a0= National House of Traditional Leaders | PHTL\u00a0= Provincial House of Traditional Leaders<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Position<\/strong><\/th>\nPrevious salary (Rands)<\/th>\nNew salary (Rands)<\/th>\nPercentage Increase<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
King\/Queen<\/td>\n1 126 057<\/td>\n1 176 730<\/td>\n4.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chairperson: NHTL<\/td>\n817 842<\/td>\n858 734<\/td>\n\u00a05.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Full Time Chairperson: PHTL<\/td>\n673 603<\/td>\n707 284<\/td>\n\u00a05.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Deputy Chairperson: NHTL<\/td>\n625 524<\/td>\n656 800<\/td>\n\u00a05.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Full Time Deputy Chairperson: PHTL<\/td>\n577 281<\/td>\n606 145<\/td>\n\u00a05.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Full Time Member: NHTL<\/td>\n356 923<\/td>\n\u00a0378 339<\/td>\n\u00a06.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Full Time Member: PHTL<\/td>\n305 959<\/td>\n\u00a0324 317<\/td>\n\u00a06.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Senior Traditional Leader<\/td>\n228 650<\/td>\n\u00a0246 942<\/td>\n\u00a0 8.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Headmen\/Headwomen<\/td>\n96 460<\/td>\n\u00a0106 106<\/td>\n\u00a08.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n
\n

Read:\u00a0New R100 million scandal sees Zuma gifted cattle bought with taxpayer money: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Des van Rooyen has revealed the total number of traditional leaders in each province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":88876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-263191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263191"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263243,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263191\/revisions\/263243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}