EDITORIAL | Should politicians get a pay rise while the country battles a jobs crisis?

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There could hardly have been a worse time for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce salary increases for politicians.

Coming a day after Stats SA released unemployment figures showing that the jobless rate had climbed to 33.7%, and days after the ANC suffered its worst electoral performance in local government elections, the announcement was not only politically tone-deaf but demonstrated just how disconnected the country’s political leadership risks becoming from the people it claims to serve.

The timing matters. The ANC has just been handed a bruising lesson at the ballot box. Voters have made it clear that unemployment, poverty, failing services and the rising cost of living are not abstract political talking points. They are everyday realities that shape how people vote and whether they still have faith in those governing them.

Yet, against this backdrop, the president has approved a 3.5% salary increase for ministers, MPs and other political office-bearers, effective from April 1. Judges and magistrates will receive 4%.

There may well be a constitutional and administrative process behind the determination, and arguments about the need to remunerate public office-bearers fairly. But legality and procedure do not automatically make a decision politically sensible.

For millions of South Africans without jobs, struggling to put food on the table or dependent on inadequate incomes, the announcement is difficult to swallow. It is particularly frustrating when young people face unemployment rates that expose an entire generation’s struggle to find a foothold in the economy.

The question is not simply whether politicians deserve an increase. It is whether they understand the optics of awarding themselves better pay while the country is battling a jobs crisis and public confidence in political leadership is wearing thin.

The ANC cannot spend the aftermath of an electoral defeat talking about listening to voters while decisions such as this reinforce the very perception that voters have rejected.

Ramaphosa may have followed the prescribed process. But leadership is also about judgment, sensitivity and understanding the moment. This was a moment that called for restraint, not a pay rise.

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