In a country with 40% unemployment, people struggling to make ends meet, with 10% of the population living on $1 a day Santa has come early for our hard-working politicians.
Finance Minister Manuel has put aside a few bob to increase the pensions of politicians. How much? Just R2.5 BILLION. Mmm, it makes handing over that bit deducted each month from your paycheque go down easy, huh?
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A whopping R2.5 billion has been earmarked by Treasury for politicians’ pensions.
According to the Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday, the money “has been allocated for the Political Office Bearers Pension Fund”.
This means that more than 10 percent of this year’s additional total appropriation of R24.4 billion is to be used to improve the pensions of contributing MPs and MPLs, the Sapa news agency reported.
The document notes this major improvement to politicians’ retirement prospects in a chapter dealing with Parliament’s budget vote, where it is listed as an “unforeseeable/unavoidable” additional appropriation.
According to Treasury officials, the pension scheme — currently a “defined benefit” fund — serves both national and provincial politicians. It has about 865 members.
This meant individual members got back “what you have put in and what the State has put in”, one official told Sapa.
Last week, the commission headed by deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, which has been tasked to examine remuneration for public office bearers, recommended significant improvements to politicians’ pensions.
According to reports, these include — for MPs and MPLs who have served less than a five-year term — a once-off gratuity equal to 45 percent of their pensionable salary for every year of service.
Those who have served for longer than five years will get a cash payout equal to four months’ salary for each five-year term of service.
Manuel told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the R2.5 billion was a once-off allocation.
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