Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) leader Khusta Jack on Saturday said he would stop the practice of the municipality paying for lavish funerals for councillors should he become Bay mayor after the upcoming polls on November 1.
Jack said this was a wasteful and fruitless expenditure, and families of deceased councillors should take responsibility for burying their loved ones, as is the case with all other employees of the municipality.
He said that would be one of the key steps in inculcating a new ethos of servant leadership at all levels of management in the municipality if residents give AIM the mandate to lead the council.
“Once people begin to learn that they are there not to be self-important but to serve the public, then we will have won half the battle towards improving service delivery,” he said.
He said the public was at fault because as soon as people were elected to public office, people started putting them on a pedestal by giving them exalted titles such as “Excellency” or “Honourable”.
“How can those who are elected to serve be more important than those who elected them and pay their salaries? This whole notion of showering public representatives with undeserved benefits starts from that wrong premise,” he said.
Jack said in the national government there is something called the Ministerial Handbook, which is a document that spells out overly generous benefits and almost obscene privileges which politicians have decided they are entitled to.
“Where have you ever heard of a situation where it is the beneficiaries who decide the quantum of the benefits they are entitled to, and even worse, those benefits are kept secret from the people who pay for them — the taxpayers.”
He said the tendency of self-gratification by politicians permeates through all spheres of government to the municipal level, and councillors draw a decent salary from the municipality.
“Like all other employees, they should make their own arrangements for the unforeseeable future.
“As AIM we believe that we will be the start of creating a new culture in the council and municipal administration, instilling the notion that councillors are not VIPs who deserve to be honoured. They are there to serve the people, like all municipal officials,” he added.
The party is contesting all 60 wards in the Bay.
Jack said they had a 10-point plan of action to rescue the metro from years of corruption and maladministration.
The action plan would be unveiled at a rally at the Nangoza Jebe Centre in New Brighton on Thursday.
HeraldLIVE