Salga head's R3.5m salary raises hackles

It says Xolile George's pay package includes a R2.8m guaranteed annual salary, with a further R700 000 in 'non-guaranteed' allowances and bonuses. This included R370 000 in 'bonuses and performance-related payments', a R144 000 car allowance, an R83 333 cellphone allowance and a R102 000 subsistence allowance. But Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Pravin Gordhan, in his reply to a question by the IFP's Khatambala Sithole, had nothing but praise for George. He said that in the eight years George had been in his post he had turned Salga around. But Sithole was not satisfied with the Minister's response. 'There is no leadership and there is no capacity. But the people at Salga are getting a lot of money for doing nothing,' Sithole said, according to the report. Full report in The Times

A municipality in Zululand, which has been placed under administration for poor service, has been paying its employees more than their counterparts in metro municipalities, notes a report in The Mercury. Despite this, states the report, the council approved backpay for workers, a move challenged by the administrator, Bamba Ndwandwe. The Mtubatuba Municipality was declared dysfunctional in June, and Ndwandwe was appointed to run it. Ndwandwe revealed on Tuesday that 86 of its 150 employees were earning more than the amounts approved by the SA Local Government Bargaining Chamber, which determines salaries of municipal employees. Councillors had unanimously voted that the municipality spend R2.3m on back pay for the employees. However, Ndwandwe refused to approve the back pay. Instead, he demanded that the employees pay back the money they had illegally been paid. Full report in The Mercury

Staying with municipal matters: Opposition parties are asking why the eThekwini Municipality is spending more than R20m on external consultants for the Cornubia housing project, instead of using its own staff, according to a report in The Mercury. It notes a report tabled before the executive committee meeting on Tuesday, said the scope of the professional services contracts had to change because it was intended to complete the second phase in less than half the time. The report says R8.9m will be spent on civil and structural engineers, R9.1m on project managers and R9.5m on town planners and architects. City manager S'bu Sithole told the committee the national and provincial departments of human settlements would fund the additional costs of the fast-track programme. The report notes DA councillor Heinz de Boer said he was 'very angry' about the decision to use external consultants. He said the amount of money used on consultants could be used to build more houses. IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the excessive use of consultants resulted in a lot of money being wasted. Full report in The Mercury