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Speaker 1: Welcome back. This is seven or two afternoon drive. So

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Speaker 1: National Treasury has increased the official vehicle threshold for ministers

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Speaker 1: and premiers by about thirty seven point five percent, and

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Speaker 1: it says that the prize cap for official vehicles for

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Speaker 1: ministers has been increased from eight hundred thousand Rand to

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Speaker 1: one point one million rand. This is a move that

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Speaker 1: the opposition parties, including BOSSA say is offensive to millions

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Speaker 1: of South Africans as citizens have had to cope with

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Speaker 1: a three rand per liter fuel hike just this week.

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Speaker 1: We're going to be speaking to COSATU, which has responded

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Speaker 1: to this as well, and they share the same sentiments

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Speaker 1: as opposition parties. Matthew Parks, COSATU's parliamentary coordinator is on

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Speaker 1: the line and joins us now live. Matthew, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for your time. Do we know what has

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Speaker 1: necessitated this move? My understanding is that the only reason

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Speaker 1: that we've received from Treasury is that inflation is one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons that we're seeing this jump thirty seven

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Speaker 1: point five percent of an increase. Matthew, can you hear.

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Speaker 2: Us so high? Apologies now was a mute no, no thanks,

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Speaker 2: it's no it's nonsensical. There's no maunter of perfume you

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Speaker 2: can put to make this one smell nice. Their logic

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Speaker 2: is that the last adjustment for inflation for the ministry

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Speaker 2: or car allowances was done in twenty twenty, and they

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Speaker 2: actually made this a judgment adjustment quietly last year in June.

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Speaker 2: It's now come to light because of parliamentary question where

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Speaker 2: they've disclosed it. But so so the argument is that

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Speaker 2: you know it wasn't adjustment for five years, but in

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Speaker 2: five years you don't have inflation equals as you're saying

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Speaker 2: about thirty seven percent. You don't have that. And even

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Speaker 2: if you did, eight thousand round is still more enough

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Speaker 2: to buy a luxury vehicle. You can still buy in

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Speaker 2: very nice, comfortable, safe clush at a fortune. You're not

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Speaker 2: going to be buying a bicycle for eight hundre thousand rode.

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Speaker 2: So to increase it to one point one million, it's excessive,

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Speaker 2: it's tone deaf. What's even more calling that they didn't

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Speaker 2: last year that was coming to light now. And last

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Speaker 2: year government plunged the country into a fiscal crisis by

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Speaker 2: having a budget which demanded a two percent back that

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Speaker 2: hike because the state doesn't have enough money. So the

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Speaker 2: state doesn't have enough money, but it has enough money

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Speaker 2: to buy luxury cars for ministers at excessive amounts. In

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Speaker 2: the rough calculation we had done that the amount of

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Speaker 2: money this will cost every year because it covers your

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Speaker 2: seventy two seventy five members of cabinet that's minister's deputy ministers,

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Speaker 2: the presidency, it covers your ninety mecs and your nine premiers.

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Speaker 2: That's if every minister buys a new car every three years.

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Speaker 2: Because they give a three year lifespan to these luxury cars,

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Speaker 2: which is again very generous. You've got to think about

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Speaker 2: an extra thirty three million around a year just because

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Speaker 2: of this, and that's sure in a broader scheme of

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Speaker 2: a budget of two be two and a half. Two

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Speaker 2: round doesn't make much difference. But the message that sends

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Speaker 2: to society is a wrong message because society has had

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Speaker 2: to endure tax sykes through the backdrop, but not a

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Speaker 2: just income tax brackets. For the previous two years, you've

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Speaker 2: had nurses having to cope with you know, large amounts

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Speaker 2: of vacancies in the hospitals, similar with home affairs, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: You have been told you by government time and again

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Speaker 2: tightening your belts. But when it comes to politicians, that

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Speaker 2: rule doesn't apply. And really it's unnecessarily it's a tone

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Speaker 2: deaf and it's really a wrong message to send to society,

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Speaker 2: especially it's difficult economic times. And what is the law?

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Speaker 1: What is the law around you know, government declaring such?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I imagine it would be a line item

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Speaker 1: somewhere in the budget, hidden tucked away very nicely for

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Speaker 1: you and I not to see. But you speak about

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Speaker 1: this having been done last year already, and you know

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Speaker 1: it has been as spoken about as openly. Is there

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Speaker 1: a law that.

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Speaker 2: Speaks to this, So it's not. You won't find it

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Speaker 2: in the budget itself. The budget is like one and

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Speaker 2: a half thousand pages. You won't see a line item.

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Speaker 2: You won't find a single sentence referring to this. But

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Speaker 2: you'll have an occasion to ministers that see, you really

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Speaker 2: have to dig very very deep. And I think hence

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Speaker 2: it really came out because one of the members of

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Speaker 2: Parliament asked a question to the Minister of Finance. Then

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Speaker 2: he's obligated to respond and said this is what we're doing,

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Speaker 2: et cetera. So you don't find a press damage you

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Speaker 2: don't find it disclosed in the budget, so it's really

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Speaker 2: hid him very very deep in the budget. And sure,

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Speaker 2: you know, tragedy can argue we can't mention every single

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Speaker 2: random sent in a budget to an afternoon, but these

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Speaker 2: kinds of things discovered, know the very sense of the

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Speaker 2: perks for politicians or government knows that it's a huge

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Speaker 2: it's a matter of great sensitivity. And there's not government's money.

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Speaker 2: This is money that's paid for by a child when

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Speaker 2: they go buy suets at a shop, is paid for

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Speaker 2: by a worker when they you know, pay for you know, buses,

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Speaker 2: taxes and the fuel tax kit can effect and you

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Speaker 2: know it's paid by companies through company tax. Everybody's paying taxes.

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Speaker 2: There are taxes of society, including the poor, and when

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Speaker 2: they stays under huge fiscal pressures, there hasn't for example,

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Speaker 2: just as the SAD grant for five hundred and six

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Speaker 2: years that has been in existence. This really sends a

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Speaker 2: wrong message and the fact that government can prioritize fancy

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Speaker 2: car upgrades for ministers but can't be bothered to show

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Speaker 2: the same appetite when it comes to SAD Guard recipients.

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Speaker 2: It really just shows you a model crisis when it

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Speaker 2: comes to our budget priorities.

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Speaker 1: My understanding, Matthew is that this has already come in

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Speaker 1: to effect, so they've already started using the one point

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Speaker 1: one million as as the threshold. Is there anything that

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Speaker 1: you can do at this stage where you know, it

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Speaker 1: seems as though the.

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Speaker 2: Horse has bolted, it can be reversed. So it's not

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Speaker 2: a law. It's that this has got by the minister

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Speaker 2: or handbook. The President signs off on it, he can

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Speaker 2: reverse it. So we're our field to the President and

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Speaker 2: will be drafting a letter to him this weekend to say, pease,

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Speaker 2: this must be reversed to sense the wrong message. So

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Speaker 2: it's not a law. There's no salvary link to it.

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Speaker 2: There's no collective agreements you know, for example that would

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Speaker 2: apply to a necess salary. There's no contract or obligation

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Speaker 2: to a service provider and so forth. This is a

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Speaker 2: pureion in house minister or handbook. It can be reversed

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Speaker 2: at any time without an illegal or course to anybody,

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Speaker 2: and the ultimate power for such matters belongs to the President.

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Speaker 2: Sure Treasury might be the one you know, drafting it

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Speaker 2: and publishing the government gazette, but the Minister of a

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Speaker 2: handbook is a president's decision. And in respect off, he

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Speaker 2: is the head of sustain and head of government, and

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Speaker 2: we would think it'd be appropriate for him to really

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Speaker 2: callt tragedy to order and say this is just unacceptable.

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Speaker 2: Government's asking society to make many sacrifices to tighten the

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Speaker 2: belts to and you know, going through painful moments, this

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Speaker 2: is the wrong message. And if governments careful, these are

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Speaker 2: the kind of things can lead to people not paying taxes,

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Speaker 2: tell of things which can lead to society feeling a

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Speaker 2: deep center au nation. And right now we're under severe

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Speaker 2: difficult economic times because of the war in the Middle East. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: slow economic growth, higher and nonmployment, high crime, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Government should be very wary of provoking society with such

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Speaker 2: unforced goals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, it's Matthew Parks, Cassatu Parliamentary Coordinator. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for your time. It's an important story

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Speaker 1: to highlight, particularly because when when you look at this jump, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean thirty seven percent, thirty seven point five percent,

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Speaker 1: that's an increase that uh, this perk for members of

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Speaker 1: parliament to you know, is going to come into effect

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Speaker 1: and I should correct that it's ministers and premiers are

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Speaker 1: not necessarily MPs. But it's a big, big jump and

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Speaker 1: one point one million rand vehicles. I mean politicians like

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Speaker 1: acting like they are one with the people, and they

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Speaker 1: say they are one with the people, and you know

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Speaker 1: they suffer as we do, they go through what we

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Speaker 1: go through. How many So Africans do you know that

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Speaker 1: driver car are worth one point one million rand. It's

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Speaker 1: an important story to keep dry on