The Department of Co-operative Governance approved a once-off gratuity of three months' pensionable salary to be paid to non-returning councillors who served a full term from 2006 to 2011.
The South African Municipal Workers Union says the payout is "unnecessary" and insisted that the money should be used for delivery of services to people rather than payments to people who have already been paid.
The money is intended to be a "cushion" for councillors who, according to Mbulelo Musi, spokesman for the Co-operative Governance Department, had "worked hard in the past."
For more:
