The question is loaded. [laughter.] I can see it from a distance, it is loaded. But nevertheless, loaded as it might be, I think there are instances where I recall taking funds away from one municipality and transferring them to another. It has happened. One of the municipalities which has benefitted from that transfer has been the one about your loaded question.
We knew that if we give well performing municipalities an additional allocation the funds will be properly spent. We have done that. So, we have rewarded well performing municipalities.
But then there is a question that Minister Dlamini-Zuma and the president of Salga always bring to my attention. The failure of a municipality to spend does not necessarily remove the people who were supposed to benefit from the service. So the people are stuck there. So, you are taking money away from the people because of a non-functioning municipal council. That is something again at the political level that needs to be dealt with. The people are there, they haven't moved, they need their streets to be tarred, they need services to be provided and they need their neighbourhood to be improved. So, then the council must deal with this issue.
You will also bear with me that I have a responsibility in terms of public finance management that where I can see funds are not being spent I have to secure them before they disappear because that is my responsibility. Some official will blow a whistle one day and say we warned the Minister of Finance that those people were not going to spend the money, it was going to disappear and he didn't do anything about it and then the consequences then will come to me, as you
said. But I am fully aware that we must be very mindful of what we do.
Chair, if you can allow me to connect this particular question to the previous question about the attraction of skills. Let me indicate to you that the general discourse is that we are not able to attract chief financial officers or municipal managers to the municipalities because they would rather stay with provincial or national government.
Let me indicate to you that, for example, the municipal manager in Johannesburg is paid at R2,8 million and the chief financial officer at R2,4 million; in Laingsburg, the smallest population size of any municipality in South Africa, the municipal manager is at R1,1 million and the chief financial officer at R1,4 million; the municipal manager at O R Tambo municipality is at R1,7 million and the chief financial officer at R1,4 million; in King Sabata Dalindyebo the municipal manager is at R1,6 million and the chief financial officer is at R1,5 million; in Port St Johns the municipal manager is R1,1 million and the chief financial officer is at R824 000; and in Maluti-a-Phofung, a municipality under frequent interventions, the municipal manager is at R1,8 million and the chief financial officer is at R1,6 million.
So, it is not true that there are no funds available for municipalities. It is not true that we are unable to attract skills because we do not pay better at municipalities. The municipal manager at the city of Johannesburg earns more than the director general of the National Treasury. It is a reality. So, I thought to bring a bit of perspective.