STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL
MAYNIER KNEW ABOUT PROPOSED REMUNERATION INCREASE, ALLOWING FOR FORMER DA MP TIM HARRIS TO EARN MORE THAN PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA, BEFORE IT WAS EVEN TABLED TO THE WESGRO BOARD.
6 July 2020
In March 2020 the MEC for Finance in the Western Cape, Minister David Maynier, published a draft budget for the province. Included in that was a more than 30% increase in the funding for WESGRO, the State-Owned Enterprise funded by DA governments in Cape Town and the Western Cape.
I raised my concerns about these and other huge increases for salaries, but the DA approved Maynier’s budget anyway.
A whistle-blower alleged that the CEO of WESGRO, former DA MP Tim Harris, was then in line for a remuneration increase of more than 80%, but following my enquiries and concerns on the WESGRO ballooning budget, that increased was reduced to 20% – plus a large 20% bonus.
The MEC for Finance, David Maynier confirmed that Harris will receive an increase of R427 000 – not the R700,000 alleged by some sources – but that he is also now also entitled to a more than R500,000 bonus.
MEC Maynier’s confirmation on the increase and bonus means that Harris is entitled to a total package of more than R3.1 million this financial year. This is more than the President of South Africa earns.
During my enquiries on this matter in March and April, I asked MEC Maynier if he had been consulted on the increase and he said he had “not been consulted”.
However, in the same reply Maynier admitted that the Chairman of the Board did ‘inform’ him “of the proposed revised salary and bonus that was scheduled to be tabled at the Board meeting on 20 March 2020.”
Maynier drafted the budget and approved the increases necessary to fund Harris’s multi-million Rand salary and, by his own admission, was informed ahead of time that this salary and bonus was to be tabled to the WESGRO board.
Maynier not only knew about the increase before the WESGRO board approved it, but he drafted and approved the budget to allow for such an increase.
I welcome the commitment by the Western Cape’s multi-party Standing Committee on the Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism to look in to these budget allocations and increases at a meeting scheduled for the 17 July.
Government must reduce exorbitant spending and I will call on the Western Cape government to stop these ridiculous increases for its cadre deployees.
South Africa is in a crisis and the huge and ballooning allocations of taxes to SOEs are despicable.
ends