Salaries in SA: What leaders, ministers and MPs earned during the pandemic

Cyril Ramaphosa has responded to a number of Parliamentary questions that were fired his way this week, and he’s confirmed that ministers and their deputies have been contributing some of their salaries towards the Solidarity Fund. Many MPs and elected officials, however, aren’t exactly out of pocket given their salaries.

Ramaphosa answers Parliamentary questions

Ramaphosa fielded a number of queries, and kept quiet on proposals to put ‘Command Councils’ in charge of certain provincial authorities – a move the DA’s Cilliers Brink has described as ‘unsubstantial and evasive’. However, it would be his talk about salaries that dominated the discourse.

Those who serve Ramaphosa’s Cabinet were asked to voluntarily donate a third of their earnings towards the Solidarity Fund during these tough times. That means each minister who opts-in to the payments is putting R66 000 a month towards the fund – over a course of three months – costing them R198 000 in total:

“The donation to the Solidarity Fund is a voluntary contribution that each member of Cabinet and deputy minister chose to make in support of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each minister and deputy minister is responsible for making the necessary arrangements to contribute to the fund.”

Cyril Ramaphosa

Salaries for MPs, ministers and leaders in South Africa – what our politicians have earned during the pandemic:

In the table below, we’ve calculated how much money our MPs, ministers, and party leaders will have earned throughout the pandemic by the time salaries are paid at the end of this month. It’s worth noting that no-one in government has been forced to take a pay-cut as a result of the pandemic.

Their August payments will represent six months of earnings during the COVID-19 crisis – and it’s fascinating to see how the other half live. In fact, those Solidarity Payments have barely made a dent for the bigwigs…

Role	Annual Earnings	Earnings from 25 March to 31 August (six months’ pay)	Earnings after Solidarity Fund payments
President Cyril Ramaphosa	R2 990 000	R1 495 000	R1 297 000
Deputy President David Mabuza	R2 825 470	R1 412 735	R1 214 735
Ministers	R2 401 603	R1 200 801	R1 002 801
Deputy Ministers	R1 977 795	R988 897	R790 897
Leader of the Opposition (John Steenhuisen)	R1 600 467	R800 233	N/A
Leaders of Minority Parties (Julius Malema/Pieter Groenewald etc)	R1 326 232	R663 116	N/A
MPs	R1 137 933	R568 966	N/A