Timeless

🚨2 Days To Go🚨 The EFF Joburg Sub-Region G, held a meeting with the community of Ward 1 in Orange Farm, inviting them to the EFF Mass Voter Registration Campaign Launch taking place on the 21 March 2026, Johannesburg , Gandhi Square. #RegisterToVoteEFF

@ParliamentofRSA entire defence of why the Secretary to Parliament position was advertised at R2.4 million, offered at R2.6 million, and then, six months into the job, increased from R2.6 million to R4.4 million with back pay, rests on a benchmarking exercise conducted by an independent company, 21st Century. It is also claimed that this was audited by @AuditorGen_SA, although it appears the AGSA defence is either going to collapse completely, they are already backtracking on some of the initial claims. It’s the AGSA response to @EFFSouthAfrica letter am waiting for. But let’s leave AGSA for now. We will come back to that some other time. Let’s deal with the 21st Century benchmarking exercise. It is 12 pages, and if you remove adverts, the title, and unnecessary and meaningless diagrams, you are left with about 9 pages. The entire methodology relies on JSE-listed companies to benchmark Parliament, the people’s Parliament. I honestly do not think the Speaker, Ms Thoko Didiza, read the report that she, as the Executive Authority, is willing to collapse on. I use to think or let me say imagine how she operates. Not this. I haven’t even touched on the seemingly interesting relationship between 21st Century and SALGA during Mr George tenure as CEO. Not only is the report badly structured, lacking in methodology and insight, it effectively compares apples with oranges. There is no evidence that it was ever interrogated, but because it was bought for purpose, it was simply used to justify what is called a “recommendation”, even though the very same report does not do so. But we will come back to this “independent report” soon. I am sure 21st Century can always rebrand. Let’s look at who, in 2022, when STP salary was raised from R2.6 million to R4.4 million, actually earned what. He was paid R3.1 million, because SALGA paid him more than R5 million for working there for four months. So effectively, in his first year in Parliament, from June 2022 to March 2023 (eight months), the Secretary to Parliament earned R3.2 million of the R4.4 million contract. Add the SALGA R5.8 million, and that is a total earning of about R9 million. The President of the country earned R3.1 million, the Deputy President R3 million, the Speaker R3 million, and the Chief Justice R3.1 million in the same period. So effectively, he earned more than all the heads of the arms of the state. I then thought we were looking in the wrong place. Let’s check legislatures. The Western Cape Secretary in 2022 was earning R2 million. The Gauteng Provincial Legislature Secretary in 2022 was earning R2.8 million. Clearly, it could not have been provincial legislatures. Maybe Chapter 9 institutions. We checked heads of Chapter 9 institutions. Except for the Auditor-General, whose salary was R5.4 million, the next highest salary was the IEC Chairperson at R2.5 million, and the rest were below that. Then I thought, let me be extreme. How much did the SARS Commissioner earn? I remember he came in as a Professor, maybe there will be something. Only to discover he earned R6.7 million in 2022/2023. Okay, now I was desperate. I thought, who pays themselves very well? Let me check the man who prints money himself, abd if he earn less, I am abandoning this comparison exercise, because I know that JSE-listed companies, driven by profit, are not what you use to benchmark Parliament salaries, especially for a position that has a Secretary to the National Assembly and a Secretary to the National Council of Provinces effectively operating as DDGs, with an additional Deputy Secretary to the Council functioning as head of corporate services. Guess what the Governor of the SARB earned in 2022/23? He earned R8.7 million. So who earned more than Mr George in 2022/23? As a conclusion, here is something to think about: in 2025, the CEO of SALGA earned R4.1 million, which is less than what Mr George earned in four months at SALGA in 2022/2023.