![\"SA](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/SA-Cabinet-salary-bill.jpg\")
<\/a>SA Cabinet salary bill<\/p><\/div>\n
This article first appeared on MyBroadband<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zuma telco ministries like a Monty Python hash-up<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on government<\/h3>\n
With 35 ministers’ and 37 deputy ministers’ salaries to pay, President Jacob Zuma’s new cabinet is set to cost South Africa over R143 million a year – excluding perks.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, 25 May 2014, the president announced the new ministers and deputy ministers who will serve as members of the national executive.<\/p>\n
Many people expected Zuma to trim down his bloated cabinet, but he surprised analysts by announcing new ministries.<\/p>\n
Among them, a new ministry of telecommunications and postal services, and a ministry of communications \u2013 a decision which many experts slated.<\/p>\n
South Africa now has 35 ministers and 37 deputy ministers, making it a very large cabinet when compared to developed nations.<\/p>\n
What is striking is that many ministers in developed countries are in charge of multiple portfolios or ministries \u2013 something which is not the case locally.<\/p>\n
It was therefore no surprise that industry players started to complain about this issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cZuma\u2019s new Cabinet is too big and will be too costly,\u201d the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) said on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cA developing country like ours, with a small tax base and whose economy has been seriously under-performing, cannot afford such a bloated Cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n
DA leader Helen Zille said that Zuma\u2019s new, even bigger cabinet is bad news for economic growth and job creation.<\/p>\n
\u201cZuma has expanded his already excessively large executive to include more new departments and several additional deputy ministers. What the government needs is a leaner, more effective administration, not an ever-growing executive,\u201d said Zille.<\/p>\n
With a large cabinet comes a large salary bill. The South African president currently earns R2,622,561 per year, while his deputy gets R2,478,378 per year.<\/p>\n
Every minister gets paid R2,106,607 per annum, while deputy ministers earn R1,734,835.<\/p>\n
But salaries are only one part of the story. Ministers enjoy many expensive perks, including travel expenses, state housing, high level security, and more.<\/p>\n
These expenses can easily exceed the salary of a minister, as seen by housing upgrades to Nkandla which exceeded Zuma\u2019s annual salary by 9,380%.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s new cabinet salary bill is expected to be around R143,000,000. This number excludes all ministerial expenses, which may well run into hundreds of millions of rands more.<\/p>\n