Tax-payers will fork out a whopping R309 million to municipal councillors who have not been re-elected.
The “golden handshakes” are considerably more than the R100 million in severance packages originally estimated.
According to Netwerk24, outgoing councillors with five or more years service would receive three months’ salary.
Pro-rata payments would be made to those who served shorter stints in their positions.
The website said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen’s spokesman‚ Legadima Leso‚ confirmed the payments would amount to R309million
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:
EN-GB;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">– far higher than earlier estimates of R100million.
Leso said the R309m would be a once-off payment, and councillors’ tax and municipal services debt would be paid first before the final payments are made.
The South African Local Government Association said the payments would be made to ensure that the councillors‚ who found themselves out of a job after the municipal elections on August 3‚ “had a safety net to tide them over” until their pensions were paid out.