[imagesource: Twitter / @MbalulaFikile]
From April next year, Eskom has asked the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to approve the electricity price being hiked by a whopping 32%.
For middle-class South Africans, that might mean a little less spending money. For South Africans with budgets already stretched to (and beyond) breaking point, it would be another crushing blow on top of inflation-linked rises in the cost of pretty much everything else.
NERSA has yet to approve the price hike – a decision will be made by December 24 – but you can rest assured that we are in for a significant cost increase come the start of the next financial year.
That won’t bother our ministers much, however, because they’re completely off the hook. City Press reports that no ministers in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet have to pay for their electricity:
This comes after the president changed the rules governing the Cabinet’s perks in April this year – the same month that the rest of the country’s electricity tariffs were increased by an average of 10% – to fully exempt ministers and their deputies from paying for any municipal services at their official residences.
This means that ministers – with a salary of R2.4 million a year – and their deputies – who earn R2 million a year – can use electricity and water to their hearts’ content, while ordinary citizens have to pay.
There had been a R5 000 cap on what Cabinet ministers could claim in this respect but that was scrapped.
Let’s just consider a few numbers for a second.
Those who are on the Older Person’s Grant, for example, also known as the state old-age pension, receive in the region of R2 000 a month. The grant is ‘a monthly income for citizens, permanent residents, and refugees 60 years or older with no other means of financial income’.
Essentially, it is meant to help older residents cope financially during their old age.
Recipients of that grant are still liable to pay for their electricity. Meanwhile, ministers pulling in more than R2 million a year won’t fork out a cent for municipal services.
To echo terrible infomercials from days of old, “but wait, there’s more”:
Ramaphosa’s generosity did not stop at water and electricity. He also increased the limit that Cabinet members can spend on luxury cars.
The impact of this windfall is aggravated by the fact that South Africa has one of the most bloated executives in the world. Ramaphosa’s gravy train has 62 passengers – 28 ministers and 34 deputies.
And free electricity is not the only ministerial benefit. Cabinet members’ power is not only free, the lights never go off either.
The Bryntirion Estate, a suburb in Pretoria where the official residences of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet are located, is exempt from load shedding. It’s powered by the same substation that provides uninterrupted power to the Union Buildings.
A cool R1,3 million was also spent on generators to power ministers’ and deputies’ private residences in the previous financial year. In the months between April and June of this year, a further R680 000 was spent on generators.
More on those vehicle perks via The Citizen:
In terms of the handbook, each Cabinet minister and deputy minister is given a luxury vehicle to use in Pretoria and Cape Town, courtesy of the South African taxpayer. The cost of fuel, maintenance, tyres and tolls for all of these vehicles is also paid by taxpayers.
Pop a flat on one of the millions of potholes that adorn our roads and you’re off the hook for that, too.
President Ramaphosa also announced in June that ministerial salaries would be increased by 3% and backdated to April 2021.
His reasoning was that ministers need raises to keep up with the cost of living.
Cool – then why can’t they pay for their own water and electricity and petrol and tyres and tolls and so on?
