SA royals get a substantial pay hike

King Goodwill Zwelithini. File Image: IOL

King Goodwill Zwelithini. File Image: IOL

Published Jan 8, 2018

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CAPE TOWN - The official salaries of South Africa’s kings, queens, and other traditional leaders have been published for the 2018 financial year.

South Africa’s royalty and traditional leaders will receive a 4.5% to 8% increase to their salaries. This increase is in line with what members of parliament and ministers will be receiving this year. 

It should be noted that government did initiate a pay freeze in 2017. There are 7 royal families that are recognised by the South African government. In 2010 the traditional leadership commission recommended that SA should lose 6 of its kings and queens. 

Subsequently of the previously 13 traditional kingdoms, only 7 will be recognised by the South African government once the current rulers have passed away. 

Here is a list of the new salary increases: 

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4 JANUARY 2018 In September 2017 King Goodwill Zwelithini complained about not getting a salary fit for a king whose subjects “contribute so much tax into the country’s coffers”.

In his wide-ranging speech, the king also lambasted the ANC for killings that are the result of internal conflicts.

“The provincial government does not recognise me in a form of a stipend that is fit for a king of the Zulus who pay so much tax in this country. I do not even know what to do in this situation, but I need to think carefully about this,” he said in his address at the King Shaka celebrations held in KwaDukuza (Stanger).

For the 2017 financial year the Royal Household Department was allocated R58 million, while the king draws a salary of more than R1.1m a year. 

The department is responsible for the upkeep of the monarch and his family, including renovations to palaces, the maintenance of his fleet of vehicles, his travel costs and the paying for groceries.

The king said the Zulus deserved so much more because they constituted the majority and had contributed significantly to the growth of the economy.

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-BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE

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