COURSE CORRECTION
New perks for ministers scrapped as President Cyril Ramaphosa backtracks
After a vociferous public backlash, President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided to withdraw his latest amendments to the Ministerial Handbook.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Monday afternoon announced that recent amendments made by President Ramaphosa to the controversial Ministerial Handbook would be withdrawn.
Briefing the media at the Union Buildings, Magwenya said Ramaphosa was aware of dissatisfaction with the new amendments that gave government ministers and their deputies several new benefits.
Not presidential spox Vincent Mangwenya saying the amendment of the Ministerial Handbook was not nefarious but an attempt by Ramaphosa to balance what ministers can afford and what they can’t afford.
— Simon Nare (@simonphomo) October 17, 2022
“President Ramaphosa has ordered the withdrawal process of the presidential minute on the Executive Members’ guide commonly known as the ministerial handbook of 2022. The withdrawal will give effect to the 2019 version of the guide, pending a review.
“President Ramaphosa accepts and appreciates the public sentiments on the matter; however, the impression created that the amendments were conducted in secrecy and to avoid public scrutiny is false,” he said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the withdrawal process of the Ministerial Handbook that provides for free electricity and water for ministers and deputy ministers @dailysunsa
— Simon Nare (@simonphomo) October 17, 2022
The amendments to the handbook included that ministers and deputies would receive unlimited free electricity and water. Ministers were also allowed to buy vehicles worth R800,000 and have as many as 15 aides, which created four new positions in each ministry. Salary scales of administrative support staff in ministerial offices were increased from R850,000 to R1.15 million per year.
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Apart from the public outcry, the DA and Cosatu also called for the new amendments to the handbook to be scrapped.
In a statement, the DA said Ramaphosa had betrayed the repeated promises he made when he assumed office — to reduce the unbearable burden of wasteful and corrupt spending. The party threatened legal action if the president failed to retract the amendments.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Politicians behaving badly, part 132: Why pay for free electricity and water while millions get hungrier, colder and darker?”
“But perhaps most shocking of all is the fact that South Africans would not even have known that they are being forced to pay the water and electricity bills of ANC ministers, as well as at least R87-million more every year to employ additional ANC cadres in ministerial offices, were it not for the DA’s tireless work to hold the ANC accountable.
“Ramaphosa’s apparent effort to accommodate staff members that the ANC can no longer afford to pay by expanding the private offices of ministers and deputy ministers will cost South Africans, who are already struggling under the heavy burden of skyrocketing food, electricity and fuel prices, an astounding R87-million more every year,” the statement said. DM
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What a disgrace thank u DA for bringing this to the publics attention
The fact that Ramaphosa tried to sneak this through, knowing (and he must have known!) that it’s a slap in the face for all South Africans, should make us question what kind of a president we actually have. It is clear that he has no interest what so ever in shutting down the gravy train for his buddies. Be damned everyone else.
good grief President, do you take us for fools. what minister can or cannot afford – they are overpaid, tea drinkers and seat warmers!
All of our taxes to fund these incompetent fat cats. They’re scraping the bottom of the gravy train, and soon there’ll be nothing left to pilfer – when this happens, we will be passed the point of no return. Not sure even an ousting of the ANC can save us now…
I have no doubt that Ramaphosa knew what he was doing. I suspect he might have been trying to grease wheels for the upcoming conference? Elsewhere it was suggested that he ‘listened to the people’ and withdrew the adjustments. The mere fact that he had to be ‘told’ by the people confirms that he personally, like his colleagues, also does not give a damn about the citizens.
I always felt there was undue excitement at Ramaphosa’s elevation. This is a man who went from shop steward to billionaire in the equivalent of the blink of an eye. No-one seemed to believe that there is anything unusual in this. I have much faith (in general) in the old saw – behind every great fortune there lies a great crime. The hope that he is cut from a different cloth than his ANC companions, has been shattered on the rocks of Phala Phala and his failure to act against the corrupt. Why the surprise at his furtive attempt to offer more graft to his companions?
This is exactly what the anc is all about – feeding at the trough of taxpayers funds. Remember, none of them ‘joined the struggle to be poor’!
Precisely.
And people still think the decline of SA can be turned for the better.
No-one can protect SA from the swarm of ANC locusts. All the crops will be devastated in time.
I am speechless. Thank you to those who remain vigilant on my behalf!
So, the unlimited increase in free electricity and water benefits has been suspended, since exposure by the DA.
But what about that pernicious, R87m benefit granted at the same time, of allowing 245 extra personnel in the private offices of ministers and deputies? Have they all suddenly been suspended without pay, pending re-consideration? Was this secret and totally unnecessary change the ANC’s scheme for getting the taxpayers to pick up the unaffordable salary bill of Luthuli House? Who is checking whether the names of recently appointed Ministerial Private Office Staff were previously employed by the ANC as party apparatchiks? Back-paid for the months Luthuli house claimed poverty, not even able to pay over their PAYE, medical aid and pension subs?
Sies on you, ANC !
I hope, Leon, you had the abdominal fortitude not to vomit when you found them out about this disgusting rip-off.