The Democratic Alliance (DA) says that the national and provincial governments spent R2.6 billion of public money on bonuses for cadres and millionaire managers in the 2018/19 financial year.

This includes R628 million spent by the national government, and R1.97 billion spent by provinces, said Dr Leon Schreiber, DA shadow minister for Public Service and Administration.

“These bonuses are paid to cadres in management positions on top of their average annual salary of R1.4 million per year,” he said.

“In a clear demonstration that the government rewards incompetence and corruption, officials working in dozens of government departments that received adverse audit outcomes still got hundreds of millions of rands in bonuses.

“The collapsed ANC-led provincial governments of Gauteng (R848 million), Limpopo (R396 million), and Mpumalanga (R244 million) paid the highest bonuses to cadres despite consistently poor audit outcomes,” Schreiber said.

In the national government, Schreiber said that the Department of Water and Sanitation “paid its cadres R101 million in bonuses for destroying South Africa’s water infrastructure and causing taps to run dry across the country”.

“Although the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform continues to undermine property rights by refusing to turn emerging farmers into owners, its managers got R41 million in bonuses.

“And while the government could not find any money to support farmers in the midst of a crippling drought, the national agriculture department paid R27 million in bonuses to millionaire managers.”

The DA recently pointed out that the government spends close to R30 billion in public money to fund the lifestyles of 27,650 managers in the public service.

“According to the Minister of Public Service and Administration, the government currently spends R7.2 billion per year on middle managers in provincial governments, R6.1 billion on senior managers in provinces, R8.1 billion on middle managers in national government, and R8.3 billion on senior managers in national government,” it said.

On average, each of the 9.774 senior managers in national and provincial government takes home R1.4 million per year, with the highest level managers being paid just under R2 million per year, the political party said.

The DA reiterated its call that the government must immediately freeze wages for all managers and administrators for three years, and reduce the number of millionaire managers by a third. “This would immediately save R168 billion, freeing up money to prevent fiscal collapse and protect basic services from the limitless greed of ANC cadres,” said Schreiber.

Read: Public money funding the millionaire lifestyles of 27,650 managers: DA