Sacked Cabinet ministers who resigned as MPs set to pocket millions – report

Fired Cabinet ministers who resigned as members of parliament (MPs) last week following President Jacob Zuma’s sweeping Cabinet reshuffle are expected to pocket millions of rands on top of their pensions due to a generous “loss of office gratuity” due to be paid out for their public service.

The Sunday Times reported at the weekend former ministers: Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Dipuo Peters – who have both held public office since 1994 – stand to pocket as much as R3.8 million each in addition to their general pension fund benefits because of the gratuity, which is paid out to any MP who has served longer than one term as a public representative.

“In terms of the rules of the Political Office-Bearers’ Pension Fund, an MP who vacates office gets paid a gratuity of four months’ pensionable salary for every five years of service. The gratuity is listed as an extra benefit that is paid out by a legislature separately from the pension.

“Peters and Joemat-Pettersson backdated their resignations from parliament to March 31 before their Cabinet axing, when they were still earning around R191 000 a month, or R2.3 million a year. Had the resignations not been backdated, their gratuities would have been almost halved,” the report stated.

Another axed Cabinet minister who also resigned as an MP, former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, served two terms in the Eastern Cape legislature before he was appointed to Treasury in 2014.

He earned R158 000  a month (R1.9 million a year) as deputy minister. His resignation from parliament was also backdated to March 31.

According to the report, it is unclear if the substantial gratuity was the motive for the resignations of the sacked ministers.

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