Zuma rejects salary sliding scale recommendation

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In terms of Zuma's decision on the commission's proposals - announced late last month - all public office bearers (barring the president) will get an across the board salary increase of 5% for 2013-14 backdated to April 1.

The commission recommended that all public office bearers who earned more than R1m a year should not benefit from a salary increase this year‚ but Zuma decided that only he (he earns R2.6m annually) would sacrifice a pay increase. This has been seen as an attempt to boost his dented credibility‚ which has been severely damaged over the R206m expenditure of taxpayers' money on his Nkandla homestead.

Cabinet ministers who earn R2m a year‚ deputy ministers (R1.7m)‚ premiers (R1.9m)‚ and mayors of large metropolitan councils such as Johannesburg‚ Durban and Cape Town (R1m) - will all benefit from the 5% salary increase according to Zuma's decision.

The sliding scale proposed by the commission would have seen those earning less than R500‚000 getting a 7% increase‚ those between R500‚000 and R800‚000 a 5% rise‚ and those between R800‚000 and R1m a 4% hike. The average rise proposed by the commission for all public office bearers over the past five years was 7.8%‚ although the average approved by the president was 7%.

"The recommendation of the commission for an increase based on a sliding scale requires careful study during the coming year to ascertain its financial implications for national‚ provincial and local governments as well as the financial position of certain categories of public office bearers‚ including the retirement benefits of judicial officers‚" presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.