No control over municipal officials’ pay

THE government has no say in how municipalities pay senior administrators, including municipal managers.

This was admitted by Eastern Cape local government department superintendent-general Stanley Khanyile at a portfolio committee meeting in the Bhisho Legislature on Tuesday.

Khanyile said national and provincial governments were in a process to regulate the upper limits paid to municipal managers and other top administrators, as some were said to be earning more than President Jacob Zuma.

Khanyile said the government’s hands were tied at the moment, leaving the upper limit to the discretion of individual municipalities.

“Legally there is no ceiling at the moment. What we are doing nationally is developing and finalising regulations in this regard,” he said.

“For the first time we will have a ceiling. In fact, the minister will categorise the municipalities and then set the limits.”

He said for these appointments his department was limited to checking that the candidate complied with the Municipal Systems Act, “in terms of skills, expertise and qualifications”.

Khanyile told MPLs that Nelson Mandela Bay Metro’s (NMBM) latest municipal manager, Dr Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela, was recently contracted with a salary package of more than R2.3-million a year, R300000 more than Zuma. Msengana-Ndlela was appointed earlier this year after a series of acting municipal managers.

The last permanent manager, Graham Richards, was suspended in 2009.

At the time, Richards’s total package was R1.7-million a year.

Andile Fani from Buffalo City Metro gets R1.4-million a year.

It is understood that salary negotiations at NMBM stalled when Msengana-Ndlela demanded more than a R2.5-million package but since settled for R2.3-million a year, making her one of the highest-paid administrators in the province.

Committee chair and ANC MPL Xolile Nqatha said they were concerned at the high salaries paid at NMBM. —