REVEALED: How much staff earned in former minister Lynne Brown's private office

Cape Town - An employee with just a grade 9 qualification earned over R890 000 a year while working for former minister of public enterprises Lynne Brown in her private office.

This was revealed in a written response to a parliamentary question posed by Democratic Alliance MP Gregory Krumbock to the former minister. Krumbock enquired about the amount budgeted and spent for her private office as well as the remuneration of staff, their job titles and qualifications.

The response, issued on Monday, also shows that a person with a matric qualification could earn close to R950 000 working as a senior parliamentary and cabinet support officer.

There were four other staff member with senior certificates, but their salaries varied based on job title and salary level.

For example, a senior parliamentary and cabinet support officer at salary level 12 earned just above R917 000. A receptionist at salary level 7 with a senior certificate earned just over R230 000.

A messenger or driver earning a salary at level 6 with a senior certificate earned R189 000, while someone with a grade 7 qualification also at salary level 6 earned over R216 000.

Brown’s chief of staff earned over R1.21m, and had a B-Tech in Public Management. Her special adviser who had a diploma in project management earned R1.29m.

Having a bachelor’s degree in administration saw one employee earn over R675 000 as a deputy director of administration. Someone with the same degree earned the same amount for work as an administrative secretary – both salaries were on level 11.

Another employee with a bachelor’s degree in administration earned over R289 900 as a senior administrative officer, at salary level 8. Someone with a qualification up to grade 11 doing the same job but at salary level 7 followed closely earning over R226 600.

In all three years, from 2015/16 to 2017/18 Brown’s office expenditure was below budget.

• READ: Pravin Gordhan back, this time as Minister of Public Enterprises

Brown was replaced by Pravin Gordhan in a Cabinet reshuffle in February by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Since taking over Gordhan has embarked on a clean-up of boards at troubled state-owned enterprises including Transnet and Denel.

At a briefing ahead of the tabling of the department’s budget vote, Gordhan said that state capture, through state-owned enterprises, could have cost the SA economy R100bn, but this was a highly speculative amount.

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