LETTER: No reason for municipal officials to out-earn private- sector peers

Kevin Allan’s article on the poisoning of municipalities by cadre deployment refers (“Cadre deployment has poisoned our municipalities,” June 5).

The salaries of all municipal officials in SA have ballooned — quite unjustifiably. A generally accepted rule of thumb used to be that a well-qualified city manager running a major city should earn no more than 70% of their private-sector counterpart. Payroll, headcount and turnover were used to identify comparable municipalities/companies. And so on down the management line.

The 70% logic was that municipal officials had more job security irrespective of performance. They could hide behind their political counterparts until the distorted light of their own incompetence finally shone through. Tragically, they had no motivation to excel as their notch and inflation increases would flow through regardless of effort or merit. An ideal post for a cadre.

That 70% logic has, in the past few years, evolved into a yet more inexplicable phenomenon, with municipal salaries now a ridiculous 120% of those in the private sector. There is manifestly no justification for this. For example, a figure of R5.8m has been quoted as the salary of the SA Local Government Association CEO — a ludicrous figure. Even R2m could not be justified. Surely a reputable remuneration consultant could introduce some sanity?

Keith Clubb
Johannesburg

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