It is deeply disturbing that Council pays a Mayoral Committee member an exceptionally high salary even while that person has another full time job as a lawyer for Cosatu.
It is deeply disturbing that Council pays a Mayoral Committee member an exceptionally high salary even while that person has another full time job as a lawyer for Cosatu. It is so much worse that council pays this salary knowing full well that Paul Notyawa is rarely at his place of work in the Makana municipal offices and regularly misses council meetings.
Notyawa is a member of the ANC and works for Cosatu – two organisations that claim to represent the interests of working class people who were cruelly oppressed by hundreds of years of racial oppression. It is difficult to understand how a member of these two organisations can take home two salaries while living in a community where most families would love to have but one salary.
We don’t know how much he earns at Cosatu, but it is unlikely to be a small or modest salary. We do however know that for doing little work at Makana Local Municipality he receives close to R40 000 per month. This is a disgrace.
It is a disgrace that he can take home so much money, knowing that a large proportion of the people he claims to represent are going to bed hungry.
It is a disgrace that the Mayor and other members of Council have allowed this situation to continue.
Perhaps councillors condone this practice of so-called ‘double-parking’ or maybe there are fears within City Hall that the public might find out that there are many other people who are drawing outrageous salaries while the town falls apart.
In the last few months City hall has paid a full salary of more than R80 000 per month to a suspended municipal manager and has paid various directors who are already earning R70 000 per month an additional sum of at least R27 000 to stand in as acting municipal manager.
It would not be so bad if these officials were doing a good job, but they are not. We, the residents of Makana, are paying enormous salaries to people who are supposed to ensure that services are delivered to our area, but they are not doing their jobs. Roads are full of potholes, pipes burst on a daily basis, many areas do not have a regular water supply of water, farm animals wander around the streets and the electricity supply is erratic.
Councillors and senior officials need to do considerably more to deserve their inflated salaries.
