Cut to minister car allowances?: Wheels: News: General

Cut to minister car allowances?

31/07/2009 08:06

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Cape Town - Ministers' lavish car allowances will be reconsidered as a part of a review of government spending, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said on Thursday.

Briefing the media after the fortnightly Cabinet meeting, Chabane said ministers who recently made the news for buying luxury cars - notably Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda who acquired two new BMWs worth about R1.1 million each - had not broken any rules.

"The political office bearers have not broken any rules and are not at fault for following the rules.

"Having said that and recognising the sensitivity of the matter, Cabinet has established a ministerial task team to look at government spending in the context of the economic meltdown."

The team will be made up of Chabane, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi and will "advise Cabinet on how matters of this nature can be handled".

Government spokesperson Themba Maseko last month brushed off suggestions that ministers might accept austerity cuts to their remuneration packages in the light of the recession.

The rethink comes after Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Sunday called for the cutting of some executive's perks, including free trips on the Blue Train and the right to a state sponsored domestic worker.

Zille also suggested trimming ministerial car allowances to R660 000 from the current price limit of 70% of their annual salary, which translates to just under a million rand.

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Michelle
8/6/2009 1:14 PM

I think it is totally disgusting that buying a million rand car is a benefit for ministers. Regardless of the current economic crises, we are still a developing country and have extreme poverty and dire lack of service delivery to contend with. I cannot wrap my head around this, there are plenty of luxury cars available under R500 000. And I as a tax payer TOTALLY object to this spending. Has anyone worked out how many ministers and how much this equates to? And explain to me why some need not one but 2 cars?? The best is this is the first thing some of them are doing, not first proving some competence and delivery.

MLB
7/31/2009 10:26 AM

As a black South African, I always take it upon myself to justify why govt behaves the way it does and that there's probably some bit of info that we're not aware of. But THIS?!? Money, as a concept is very simple, the more you save, the better off you (and in this case, the country) are. I wonder whether someone has actually done an analysis to determine how much would have been saved on a cummulative basis if certain types of cars, houses or perks had been cut by, say 30%, and they still dont want to pay striking workers

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