The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) says it has registered notable progress in the payments of the once-off gratuity to eligible non-returning councillors following the 2021 Local Government Elections.

The payment of the gratuity followed the recommendation made by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers in August 2021 for non-returning councillors to receive a once-off gratuity payment.

On Monday, the department said the gratuity was based on the last basic salary earned, excluding travel and housing allowances, municipal contributions to a pension fund, and a medical aid scheme.

CoGTA spokesperson Lungi Mtshali said the payments to qualifying beneficiaries were done after completing a number of checks and verifications, including getting tax directives from the South African Revenue Service.

“Thus far, as of 16 January 2022, a total of 1 630 applications have been verified and paid from across the 257 municipalities in the country,” he said.

Mtshali said the department remained committed to ensuring that these payments are expeditiously processed.

“To this end, additional human resources has been sourced to assist in expediting the payments in order to ensure that payments are completed by no later than 28 February 2022, well ahead of the set deadline of 31 March 2022 set out in the circular sent to all municipalities last year (2021) in October and notwithstanding the fact that most municipalities only submitted complete documents required between 20 December 2021 and now.”

Source: South African Government News Agency