MPs who will not go back to parliament following the earthshaking election results are smiling all the way to bank, with at least R81m set aside to pay them loss-of-office gratuities.
The money will be paid to at least 143 MPs and cabinet ministers who will not be returning to parliament, either because they have decided to retire or because their parties fared dismally at the polls.
The ANC haemorrhaged 71 MPs in the May 29 elections after its share of the vote dropped from 57% in 2019 to 40% this year, leaving it with only 159 seats in the National Assembly, from 230 five years ago.
The EFF has lost five MPs and the long-serving parliamentarian Mosiuoa Lekota from COPE must pack his bags. MPs from the NFP and the African Independent Congress have also lost their seats.
Outgoing international relations minister Naledi Pandor ... is due to pocket at least R5.2m in loss-of-office compensation, based on her R2.6m annual salary
Those who have been in parliament since 1994 but now have to leave will do best financially. They are entitled to a loss-of-office gratuity over and above their pension benefits and other post-retirement perks such as medical aid and free flights.
The loss-of-office gratuity amounts to four months’ pensionable salary for every term completed by an MP, cabinet minister or deputy minister.
Outgoing international relations minister Naledi Pandor is likely to be among the big winners. Pandor, who will not be coming back to parliament unless President Cyril Ramaphosa or his successor uses the presidential prerogative to reappoint her, is due to pocket at least R5.2m in loss-of-office compensation, based on her R2.6m annual salary.
The constitution allows the president to appoint at least two ministers or deputies from outside the National Assembly.
Also coining it is outgoing Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Lechesa Tsenoli, who has been a public representative since 1994. In that time his posts have included MEC in the Free State and deputy minister under former president Jacob Zuma. Tsenoli is due to score at least R4.4m, based on his current salary of R2.2m a year.
Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the loss-of-office benefit to outgoing MPs and ministers is paid from the national revenue fund, run by the National Treasury.
“The gratuity is a direct charge against the national revenue fund. The total number [of MPs to be paid] is not yet determined,” said Mothapo.
According to the website of the political office bearers’ pension fund, “all members who have served for more than one term in office, or more than five years, if our service started between two elections, also receive an additional gratuity amount”.
“This additional benefit falls outside the rules of the fund. It is an amount paid to you by parliament or the provincial legislature when your term of office ends,” it says.
“All members who qualify for this benefit will receive a gratuity of four months’ pensionable salary for every five years of service. This calculation is based on your monthly pensionable salary as earned at the time you leave office.”
Outgoing MPs can choose to remain in parliament’s medical scheme, Parmed.
The national legislature must meet the cost of moving the belongings of outgoing MPs from Cape Town back to their homes elsewhere in the country, up to a ceiling of R24,000.
MPs and their dependants are entitled to free relocation flights from Cape Town back to their homes; these are in addition to the 12 air tickets a year that parliament will buy for former MPs and ministers for the next five years as a retirement benefit.
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