No Tito, cut all house and car perks for elected officials – EFF

In spite of their scathing critique of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS), the Economic Freedom Fighters agree with his suggestion that government’s expenditure on perks and wages for elected officials is far too high.

In a statement issued in response to the MTBPS, the EFF reminded South Africans that their founding manifesto says “the manner in which the state is currently structured with regards to benefits and perks given to elected representatives is not only costly, but unethical in that it leads to a social distance between the people and representatives”.

The party then repeated their call for “public representation that is not defined by unnecessary luxuries and benefits”.

The EFF has vowed to advocate for a policy position that will see elected officials paying for their own homes and cars using the wages they are paid by the government as opposed to the current status quo that places that financial burden on the state.

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“The amount of money the state spends on representatives’ personal conditions and upliftments is in no way justifiable. As public representatives with salaries, ministers, MECs and councillors should use their own cars and stay in their own houses, paid for by the salaries they are given by the state,” said the EFF.

In addition, the party threw their weight behind the call to move parliament from Cape Town to Pretoria, citing the need for the administrative and legislative capital to exist in the same place.

Their overall thoughts on the MTBPS were that it was a speech that lacked new ideas and creativity as there was no departure from previous trends.

They cautioned against the suggestion that the nation needed structural austerity measures on social services and infrastructure and called it an “unsustainable economic recovery strategy”.

The party noted, with disappointment, the speech’s stance on SOEs, unemployment, e-tolls, Sars, the NPA, the public protector’s office and the country’s debt levels.

They concluded by suggesting “urgent measures” as a short-term intervention for the period leading up to the next budget speech. Among these measures were suggestions such as dealing decisively with illicit financial flows so as to enable Sars to better fulfil its mandate, the move away from imported goods and services towards locally produced and provided goods and further insourcing of workers in all spheres of government.

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