James Styan, the Spokesperson for Anton Bredell, the MEC for Local Government in the Western Cape, has issued a brief press release in response to media reports about excessive Municipal Manager salaries in the Western Cape:

A New Government notice has been published with regards to the maximum salary notches for officials like municipal managers by the minister for Cogta, Pravin Gordhan. This notice determines the upper limit of the remuneration packages applicable to senior managers inclusive of municipal managers at municipalities.

The provisions of the Notice became effective as of 1 July 2014.

When compared with current remuneration packages it now means some managers are earning more than the new provisions allow for.

However the notice does contain some transitional provisions which amongst others state that the salaries in the notice do not affect the validity of an existing employment contract of a senior manager.

Therefore, with regards to what is to be done, one cannot reduce current packages as that would very likely, amongst others, be a breach of contractual law. The current levels of remuneration may therefore remain in place.

The current notice has several practical implementation challenges and these must urgently be addressed. The minister is consulting with the national department and other stakeholders on the issue.