South Africa: MPs to Fight Back Over Proposed Cut to Parliament Benefits – Report
High-earning Members of Parliament are preparing to resist a move over the trimming of some of their benefits, a Sunday report said.
According to the Sunday Times, Parliament is set to review its benefits scheme after it will spend an extra R111m in “loss of office” gratuities this year, to pay 159 MPs who didn’t return to their seats after the elections.
Those who didn’t make it to Parliament are entitled to a once-off gratuity of four months’ salary for every five-year term completed, paid over and above normal pension benefits, News24 previously reported.
ANC MP Peace Mabe, co-chair of the committee on the financial management of Parliament, is quoted in the Sunday Times saying they wouldn’t want to see their benefits being affected as they left their homes to “come and serve the country”.
The report also said that the taxpayer is forking out R120m a year on airline tickets for approximately 2000 current and former MPs, ministers and their families.
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