Mayors' salaries

Image: Flickr

Mayors’ salaries: Here’s how much they earn in South Africa

The government has confirmed unchanged wages for members of municipal councils. The report has revealed mayors’ salaries.

Mayors' salaries

Image: Flickr

Mayors’ salaries have been revealed in an announcement from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta). Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma confirmed a wage freeze for senior municipal workers on Tuesday 2 November.

CONFIRMED MAYORS’ SALARIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

The information was communicated after Dlamini-Zuma announced a 0% cost of living adjustment for the 2020/2021 financial year. In other words, April 2020’s wages will remain unchanged for top municipal employees.

While there is an approximate 9,000 councillors in Mzansi’s 278 municipalities, the data below reflects payments for mayors’ salaries, their deputies, speakers, mayoral committee members, executives, executives of sub councils, as well as whips.

As explained by Business Tech, workers in municipal offices are compensated based on a points and grade system. The variables include municipal income and the given municipality’s population.

In large and highly-populated areas such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, the top municipal workers can take home payments as steep as R1.4 million a year, while the workers in smaller municipalities only earn as high as R782,000 per year.

The table below shows mayors’ salaries and other top municipal workers.

Image: BusinessTech

ADDED BENEFITS

As with any job opportunity, especially in public office, additional compensation benefits put a smile on the face of the beneficiary.

Top municipal workers enjoy more than decent motor vehicle and travel allowance, out of pocket expense, upper limits of cell phone allowance for councillors for up to R3,400 per month, data bundles with a maximum of R300 per month and special risk cover.

Meanwhile, a recent report confirmed increases in government employees’ income helped to grow the average take-home salaries in South Africa. The local average income was at R13,047 before it expanded to R15,794 in September 2021 – which increased by 8.3% compared to 2020.

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