Taxpayers to fund councillors' insurance - report

2012-09-14 15:33

Johannesburg - If national treasury approves municipal councillors' risk insurance, taxpayers are expected to pay about R3m a year, according to a report on Friday.

The New Age reported that SA Local Government Association (Salga) CEO Xolile George said the risk cover could include life cover for a councillor, for injury or damage to their property.

Since the local government elections in May last year, councillors in Ekurhuleni and Soweto in Gauteng, Komatipoort in Mpumalanga and the Greater Tubatse municipality have had their properties destroyed.

"We have done our modelling and so far the average cost would be about R25 per councillor per month that would be required to be paid towards that fund," George told the paper.

The money would be used as risk cover for over 10 000 councillors countrywide.

Salga chairperson Thabo Manyoni said the association had also spoken to President Jacob Zuma about the risk insurance.

"The ball is in the court of the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs and national treasury to address the issue," Manyoni told the New Age.

"We have made our recommendations."

Manyoni added that Salga made some changes to their constitution, one of which was the inclusion of additional members to represent the association at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

He said the delegates agreed to implement a plan to improve service delivery across the country.

- SAPA