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Home » Which SA MPs Earn the Most and Which Work the Hardest … Read On

Which SA MPs Earn the Most and Which Work the Hardest … Read On

If you’ve ever wondered how much a member of parliament in South Africa makes a month, or which MPs work hardest for their money, a new breakdown of the figures sets it all out – in hundreds of thousands of rands, cents and hours. The lists, which were released Wednesday by Africa Check and are based […]

By SAPeople Staff Writer
08-06-16 20:20
in News
africa check parliament

If you’ve ever wondered how much a member of parliament in South Africa makes a month, or which MPs work hardest for their money, a new breakdown of the figures sets it all out – in hundreds of thousands of rands, cents and hours.

The lists, which were released Wednesday by Africa Check and are based on the Government Gazette and its own data, note that the controversial speaker of parliament Baleka Mbete earns over R226,000 a month. The hardest-working MP, meanwhile, doesn’t come from any major party but is the United Democratic Movement’s Mncedisi Filtane.

Eight of the other 10 hardest-working MPs, Africa Check said, belong to the African National Congress and the tenth, who comes in last, the Democratic Alliance.

In its calculations, Africa Check also took a look at how much it cost when MPs took a nap, which a number of them – most notably minister of international relations and cooperation Maite Nkoana Mashabane – have been accused of in the present parliamentary sitting.

africa check parliament

The figures showing what parliamentarians earn, from the average MP to the deputy president, are as follows:

  • Cyril Ramaphosa (Deputy President) – R226‚400 a month
  • Baleka Mbete (Speaker) – R226‚400 a month
  • Cabinet ministers – R192‚439 a month
  • Deputy Cabinet ministers R158‚477 a month
  • Mmusi Maimane (DA leader) – R124‚516 a month
  • Julius Malema (EFF leader) – R101‚885 a month
  • Average MP – R86‚120 a month.

To figure out who worked hardest, “Africa Check used attendance records data collected and made publicly available by the PMG to find the ‘hardest-working MPs’ based on how many committee meetings they attended in 2015,” it said in a statement.

“The highest number of committee meetings attended by an MP was 70. All the people on the list attended 50 committee meetings or more. The MP who attended the most meetings is a member of a minority party, the United Democratic Movement, from the Eastern Cape.”

Most of the 10 hardest-working MPs are little heard of by the public, besides perhaps the ANC’s Nikolaas Koornhof – who was a close runner-up to the UDM’s Filtane – and Yunus Carrim.

The full Africa Check story can be read here.