{"id":54878,"date":"2023-10-11T12:02:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T12:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase"},"modified":"2023-10-11T13:00:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T13:00:04","slug":"calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase","title":{"rendered":"Calls for investigation into parliament\u2019s secret salary increase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The National Assembly Speaker and the chairperson of NCOP handed the Secretary to Parliament, Xolile George, a salary hike of almost 70% \u2013 and the DA wants answers.<\/p>\n<p>According to a Sunday Times report, National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and NCOP chair Amos Masondo quietly approved the salary increase for George and then lied about it.<\/p>\n<p>Xolile George was CEO of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) before applying for the role of Secretary to Parliament last year.<\/p>\n<p>Mapisa-Nqakula and Masondo publicly agreed in June 2022 that George would be paid R2.6 million a year and told other political parties and the public that George was happy to take a pay cut from his previous job as CEO of Salga, where he was paid over R5 million a year.Following this report, The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli, to refer the investigation into the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, to the Powers and Privileges Committee.<\/p>\n<p>The DA noted that Parliament approved the appointment of George in June 2022 based on the misleading information provided by the Speaker in Parliament, in that Mr George\u2019s salary would amount to R2.6 million, in line with what Parliament can afford.<\/p>\n<p>The almost 70% salary increase information was not disclosed to Parliament and remains officially undisclosed, the DA said.<\/p>\n<p>The DA contends that there are a number of breaches of ethics, accountability, transparency requirements and misconduct by the Speaker, in particular:<\/p>\n<p>In response to the Sunday Times article, Parliament said the longstanding custom of evaluating the compensation package for the Accounting Officer has remained consistent over time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis careful review process aims to maintain the package\u2019s competitiveness, equity, alignment with industry norms, and reflection of the role\u2019s demands. This practice serves as a crucial strategy for Parliament to both attract and retain highly skilled individuals and ensure organizational stability,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>In endorsing the recommendation of the experts regarding this review, the Presiding Officers were also mindful of the prevailing socio-economic conditions in the country. Hence, the reviewed remuneration package for Mr George was set below (by approximately 26%) what he earned in his previous position as CEO of Salga, Parliament added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decision to review Mr Xolile George\u2019s remuneration package was thorough, objective, and in line with longstanding practices. We remain committed to transparency and fairness in all our actions and decisions related to the well-being of our employees, including the Accounting Officer of Parliament,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>Ordinarily, a Member of Parliament would refer a complaint about another MP to the Speaker for investigation, who would then refer matters for investigation and adjudication to the said Committee.<\/p>\n<p>However, because the speaker is at the centre of these grave allegations of misconduct and therefore conflicted, the Deputy Speaker now needs to take the lead in handling the case, said the DA.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The National Assembly Speaker and the chairperson of NCOP handed the Secretary to Parliament, Xolile George, a salary hike of almost 70% \u2013 and the DA wants answers. According to a Sunday Times report, National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and NCOP chair Amos Masondo quietly approved the salary increase for George and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":54877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-54878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Calls for investigation into parliament\u2019s secret salary increase - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Assembly Speaker and the chairperson of NCOP handed the Secretary to Parliament, Xolile George, a salary hi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calls for investigation into parliament\u2019s secret salary increase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Assembly Speaker and the chairperson of NCOP handed the Secretary to Parliament, Xolile George, a salary hi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-11T12:02:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-11T13:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/10\/sm_1697016557.687978.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Calls for investigation into parliament\u2019s secret salary increase\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-11T12:02:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-11T13:00:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/10\/sm_1697016557.687978.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calls-for-investigation-into-parliaments-secret-salary-increase\",\"name\":\"Calls for investigation into parliament\u2019s secret salary increase - 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