Cosatu has called for the scrapping of new rules in the ministerial handbook that exempts members of the cabinet from paying for municipal services such as water and electricity.
Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the trade union movement was shocked by reports that taxpayers pay for water and electricity for cabinet members.
“This is shameful and scandalous considering that millions of poor people in SA are struggling with the escalating cost of living. It is extremely insensitive for this administration to cushion the members of the executive while imposing extreme sacrifices on the workers and the unemployed,’’ said Pamla.
Cosatu’s reaction comes in the wake of news reports by City Press that President Cyril Ramaphosa made changes to the rules of cabinet members’ perks that state that ministers and deputy ministers do not pay anything for municipal services such as water and electricity at their official residences.
According to the reports, Ramaphosa made the revision in April, the same month that South Africans had their electricity tariffs increased. The revision to the ministerial handbook states that the department of public works will now pay for the water and electricity at state-owned residences.
The politicians are exempt from paying for rates despite ministers earning R2.4m a year and deputy ministers being paid R2m a year. The decision by Ramaphosa came a few months after he announced salary hikes for politicians and other government officials.
Pamla criticised the new rules by a government that is implementing “ineffective policies” .
“These are the same people who have mismanaged the power utility to the ground over the past 16 years, and this has seen consumers being subjected to continuous double-digit and above-inflation electricity tariff hikes. This is the very same executive that has mismanaged the water crises in SA, leading to water-shedding and water restrictions.
“South African cabinet members are among the highest paid in the world and they lead one of the most unequal countries with some of the poorest people in the world. The same politicians who are being cushioned from the cost of living are persisting with ineffectual neoliberal policies and budget cuts that are driving down standards of living and destroying the livelihoods of millions of people throughout the country,’’ said Pamla.
He said the revelations would only serve to harden attitudes of workers “during this year’s round of wage negotiations’’ .
“The federation is calling for the scrapping of these vulgar and tone-deaf perks for cabinet members and an overhaul of the ministerial handbook that is out of touch with reality. In addition, this is a perfect time for the nation to demand the capping of executive pay to reduce the gap between the highest and the lowest paid. Wage inequality remains the main driver of overall inequality and the ways to curbs high inequality is to close the gaps between the highest paid and the lowest paid,’’ he said.
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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