{"id":51002,"date":"2026-11-14T17:08:54","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T15:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=51002"},"modified":"2026-11-14T17:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T15:08:54","slug":"sa-government-defends-final-payout-fund-for-outgoing-councillors","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-government-defends-final-payout-fund-for-outgoing-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"SA government defends final payout fund for outgoing councillors \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African (SA) government has moved to defend an $18 million fund set aside for once-off gratuity payouts to unseated and non-returning councillors following the November 4 local government elections.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa explained that the money is intended as a short-term financial cushion to help outgoing public representatives transition back into ordinary life after losing their seats.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Addressing concerns over the expenditure, Hlabisa noted that the arrangement, which was first introduced in 2011 and previously paid out after the 2016 and 2021 municipal polls, is being phased out permanently after this cycle.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This once-off gratuity started in 2011, and it was paid in 2016 and 2021, this is the last one, it&#8217;s not going to continue going forward,&#8221; Hlabisa said. &#8220;Why this money has been in place is to cushion and allow councillors who lost their seats to adjust back to normal life, because some will have to start looking for a job. Most of them are still very young and have family commitments, so this is just to help them with a short relief.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The government maintains that the final payout provides essential breathing room for former councillors navigating sudden unemployment, while confirming that no future municipal election cycles will carry similar exit packages.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13403,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-51002","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA Minister defends $18 million cushion for unseated councillors","published_date":"2026-11-14 16:41:40","news_description":"SA Minister defends $18 million cushion for unseated councillors","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51004,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51002\/revisions\/51004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=51002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}