{"id":525298,"date":"2021-09-30T13:11:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T11:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=525298"},"modified":"2021-09-30T13:11:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T11:11:04","slug":"wage-deal-imperils-south-african-municipalities-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/525298\/wage-deal-imperils-south-african-municipalities-finances\/","title":{"rendered":"Wage deal imperils South African municipalities\u2019 finances"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African municipalities\u2019 budget frameworks are at risk of being compromised by a three-year deal that granted their workers inflation-beating increases.<\/p>\n

Municipalities\u2019 employee-related costs rose 5.2% in the year through June, Statistics South Africa said Thursday in a quarterly report of financial statistics from selected areas. The costs include basic pay, benefits such as medical and pension contributions, and clothing and other allowances.<\/p>\n

The increase exceeds an interim 1.5% pay raise agreed by South Africa\u2019s national government and unions representing a majority of civil servants this year.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because most municipalities implemented the first year of a separately negotiated deal that raised annual wages by 6.25% from July last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNot all municipalities have budgeted for these increases,\u201d the National Treasury said in February. \u201cUnless municipalities rapidly improve efficiency, this agreement will compromise the local government fiscal framework and service delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

A succession of government reports has shown the mounting risk the 257 municipalities pose to the nation\u2019s finances. Local authorities\u2019 inability to collect payment for rates and services from residents who are unable or unwilling to pay means they struggle to settle their own bills.<\/p>\n

South Africans are scheduled to vote in local government elections Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: A business took a failing municipality to court in a landmark case \u2013 and now it could happen across South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African municipalities\u2019 budget frameworks are at risk of being compromised by a three-year deal that granted their workers inflation-beating increases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":390887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-525298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525298","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":525310,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525298\/revisions\/525310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}