MPs will meet President Thabo Mbeki on Monday to demand higher pensions, while support staff of some political parties are uncertain about whether they will get paid on Sunday.
The parliamentarians' multiparty task team will present a submission to Mbeki, arguing their case for better pensions.
MPs across the spectrum are not satisfied with the Moseneke Commission's recommendation in respect of their remuneration packages.
Sybil Seaton, the Inkatha Freedom Party MP, who is the main driver of the fight for better pensions, confirmed that the multiparty committee would be meeting Mbeki on Monday.
She refused to divulge details of their submission, saying, "I don't want to comment at this stage. It's going to jeopardise everything."
However, The Sunday Independent has learned that the task team relented on its earlier proposal for 100 percent contributions to pensionable salaries.
Moseneke had described it as "excessively expensive".
The MPs proposal would have cost the state R4,7-billion.
But an ANC MP close to the process privately said that the task team would reluctantly accept Moseneke's proposal while raising concerns about the "inadequate" benefits and the widening salary gap between MPs and ministers.
"The task team accepts that it would be very difficult to achieve the 100 percent , so they will accept Moseneke's recommendations. But the opinion of MPs is that if there is money to pay ministers a 50 percent increment, there should be money to pay MPs also, that's the attitude," said the MP.
Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke heads the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers which determines the salaries of MPs, government ministers, judges, magistrates and the president.
Moseneke proposed a 20 percent increase in contributions to MPs' pensions, which will see them go up to 54,5 percent. MPs would contribute 7,5 percent and the state 47 percent.
For MPs who served for 15 years, the commission proposed that they received percentages ranging from 60 percent to a maximum of 92,5 percent of their pensionable salaries, depending on the age of an MP.
An ordinary MP's total package - including perks and allowances - would grow to R692 085, with Moseneke's proposed salary increase. The pensionable salary, minus perks and allowances, will stand at R388 163.
However, MPs argued that Moseneke's proposal would leave retired MPs with little pension.
A proposal for better pensions by Seaton was unanimously accepted by all MPs across the political parties.
Seaton had suggested that on top of the pensions, members with 15 years' service should receive a lump sum equivalent of three years of their pensionable salaries.
Those who served 10 years would get two years' salary on top of the pension. One-term MPs would walk away with a year's salary in addition to their pensions, as per Seaton's proposal.
The pensions issue had also pitted Trevor Manuel, the finance minister, against his fellow ANC MPs who accuse him of siding with Moseneke. Manuel was to repeat this in an ANC caucus meeting a few weeks ago - incurring the wrath of his comrades.
Mbeki has the final word in altering the commission's recommendation, although it is unlikely that he would do so.
Meanwhile, support staff of political parties, who are supposed to be paid today, are uncertain that their salaries will be in their bank accounts.
They were told that the glitch had to do with their parties' audited statements of the political parties fund of the Independent Electoral Commission.