Durban - Legislation has to be passed to enable headmen (Izinduna) to receive salaries, the provincial premier’s office said on Wednesday.
This came in response to the demand by headmen for salaries, following President Jacob Zuma’s proclamation of a standardised R84 125 annual salary two weeks ago. This would translate to about R171 million for the province annually.
When government made the first salary proclamations in 2006, the 2 000-plus headmen were paid a monthly stipend of R1 300.
Premier Mchunu’s acting spokesperson, Sbusiso Magwaza, said Zuma’s proclamation had no bearing on whether headmen should get salaries.
“Paying them (headmen) salaries is a legislative process which requires that all processes be followed. Without this being legislated, it will be a difficult and risky exercise to do, because you need to have a law in place that says pay the employee this much, and how much has to be paid. Also, the availability of funds will have to be looked into before the process of passing the legislation,” Magwaza said.
He said to initiate the legislation process, an opposition party, an MEC or ordinary member of Parliament should table a proposal to pay headmen salaries. This proposal must have enough support to be considered for further scrutiny.
The proposal is then taken to the State Law Adviser, who looks into whether it is consistent with the constitution and it is brought back to the legislature for debate.
Magwaza said once the debating stage was done, the proposal would be taken back to the State Law Adviser who looks into issues of funding.
“Sufficient funds for the salaries is another aspect looked at during the process. The entire process can take months to complete once all the loopholes are identified and all concerned reach a consensus about the proposal,” he said.
The other provincial governments that pay headmen salaries do so because they had gone through this process as early as 2004, he said.
“The successive KZN governments of Dr Frank Mdlalose, Dr Ben Ngubane, Dr Lionel Mtshali, Dr Sbu Ndebele and Dr Zweli Mkhize did not pass this legislation; hence it remains difficult to pay stipends to Izinduna like in other provinces.
“The premier suggested that because Izinduna attending the traditional council get stipends, in the interim he is of the view that stipends must be paid to all Izinduna while the issue of legislation is being handled by government,” he said.
Provincial headmen spokesperson, Vusumzi Mthethwa, said they were expecting a meeting with the premier next week. “This whole thing is confusing. How and where are they getting the stipend money if it is not legislated? Why not accommodate Izinduna in the legislation that accommodates Amakhosi, because in any case, we fall under Amakhosi, so there’s no sense in having different laws for these two offices,” he said.
Daily News