Should MPs get paid more?

As we get closer to the elections I have been wondering how long the newbies – especially the rich ones  - are going to last if they get elected. I mean if millionaires like Herman Mashaba and Louis Liebenberg see their first salary slip after working super long hours, will they really stay for the sake of public service?

I doubt it. 

For the record: I think members of parliament should be paid more. Ok, ok, I know that I most probably sent up your blood pressure, but bear with me. 

There is a common perception – fueled by newspaper headlines - that MPs earn exorbitant salaries and are millionaires for basically doing nothing. Whilst it is true that they earn a little over a million rand per year and yes, some do very little, it is not quite as simple. 

The total salary package of a member of parliament is just over a million rand per annum. However, once tax, pension fund and medical aid are deducted, they are left with just over R52 000 per month. All political parties insist that their elected officials pay a separate contribution to the party leaving them with around R50 000 per month. This is most probably what the rich blokes spend on Starbucks in a month. 

Canadian MPs earn R2,7 million per annum and American Members of Congress pocket over R3 million each year. Closer to home Kenyan representatives get paid R1,7 million and their Nigerian counterparts get even more.

“And what about all the benefits?” I hear you ask. Members of parliament get a certain number of airline tickets for themselves and their families to travel between their constituencies and parliament or for other parliamentary work. They also get refunded for parking at the airports, a certain amount of cell phone costs as well as a relocation allowance. Food during sessions is subsidized (but not free), as is accommodation in the parliamentary villages for those who live out of Cape Town.  This might sound like a lot, but these type benefits would be fairly standard in the private sector at a certain level. It is also worthwhile mentioning that the average senior manager in the private sector earns closer to R1,5 million in addition to work-related expenses. 

Which brings me to my point. Of course, the salaries of members of parliament are generous when you compare them to the average salary in South Africa – in fact they are about four times higher. However, we do not want average MPs and those are the ones we are getting far too often at the moment. I am also told that many MP’s – especially those in single income households - take on side jobs to supplement their salaries, something which I believe should not be allowed.

I know many would argue that people work much harder in the private sector and in some cases that might be true. However, having been an MP myself and still having many friends in parliament, I can honestly say that this is not true for the majority of MPs. The hours are extremely long, MPs are never off duty and without exception, their family lives are strained by the demands of the job. I recall that during the first parliament, 48 female MPs got divorced, which says a lot about the pressure public office puts on the representatives.

All these factors are part of why many skilled people don’t want to take up public office and when they do, they usually don’t last long. 

Of course, I’m painfully aware that these salaries and benefits come from our hard-earned tax money and like all South Africans, I don’t want SARS to take any more of my income.  However, I do want better qualified and dedicated MPs to be in parliament. 

The only way to get better bang for our buck is to reduce the size of parliament whilst paying those who are there more.  The Constitution states that there can be a minimum of 350 members in the National Assembly and a maximum of 400. We are, of course, currently at the maximum. 

Wouldn’t it be better to have 350 excellent MPs and pay them better? I think so. There must also be better mechanisms for choosing party candidates and for penalising those who don’t perform. 

I also hope that the President will finally honour his promise to reduce the size of the cabinet significantly. I am still at a loss as to what  28 ministers and 36 deputy ministers do – and they get serious money. 

We need super smart, skilled and totally dedicated men and women to manage our country and we need them to stay in parliament to build up institutional memory. If that means paying fewer of them more – I’m all for it.