If you ever wondered why some of these smaller political parties campaign so hard, just to land a seat or two in the National Assembly, there are a million reasons why.

R1,1 million actually, or a cool R92 245 a month salary, which puts our Members of Parliament amongst the top 1% of earners in the country.

It’s making a little more sense now, isn’t it?

From the moment our 400 MPs and 90 members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) are sworn in on May 22, reports Business Insider SA, they also enjoy some pretty sweet job-related perks.

For the upcoming MP term, these include:

• 88 domestic journeys per year which can either be by air, train, bus or vehicle.
• Transport to and from South African airports.
• Parking at South African airports.
• Transport of dependents.
• Relocation costs.
• “Tools of trade”, which include mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
• Equipment, furniture and stationery for MPs’ offices inside the national assembly.
• Personal accident insurance.
• Accommodation at the parliamentary villages in Cape Town.
• Daily transport to and from the villages to parliament.

Makes saving that R90-odd grand a month a little easier.

It’s estimated that the National Assembly spends close to R600 million a year on MP salaries, and that doesn’t include the money they take on the side as part of their criminal endeavours.

In particular, five of the ANC members who are heading to Parliament stand out. We’ve covered them before, as proof that the party doesn’t give a damn about its voters or cleaning up its act, but we’ll go again for old time’s sake.

As always, there’s Bathabile ‘queen of the glazed over eyes look’ Dlamini, who almost sank our social grants system singlehandedly.

News24 with a summary of her greatest hits:

Her biggest failure to date is the social grant crisis, when she failed to take action when an arrangement with Cash Payment Services (CPS) to deliver social grants to the poor had expired.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was quoted as saying that “there was no explanation for the incompetence displayed by her and Sassa”.

I’d say it’s a three-pronged explanation featuring alcohol, ineptitude and criminality. Also, have you seen her on the SONA red carpet?

Anyway, incompetence doesn’t stop one from heading back to the National Assembly.

Then there’s the ever-present Nomvula Mokonyane, our Minister of Environmental Affairs who was caught up in the Bosasa scandal recently.

She was alleged to have been pocketing a cool R50 00 a month from the company but hey, why should that stop her from serving her country once more?

Everyone knows about the one and only Malusi Gigaba, so we don’t need to go too deep on that one. Gupta stooge and sex tape star, anybody?

A special shout-out to Faith Muthambi, who sometimes flies under the radar, but deserves to be singled out:

The former Minister of Communications during Jacob Zuma’s term as President was described as someone “who wanted to steal at all costs” by Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) CEO, Phumla Williams at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture last September.

Williams was shedding a light on among other things, how R55m was paid to the Gupta-owned newspaper The New Age (TNA) through the SABC/TNA breakfasts.

Muthambi, a staunch Zuma supporter who attends his court appearances following her axing as a minister, is number 79 on the ANC list…

Someone “who wanted to steal at all costs” would make for a good tombstone.

Finally, our old pal Mosebenzi Zwane, who served under Zuma as Minister of Mineral Resources:

[He] has also been linked to the Guptas who allegedly facilitated his appointment to the post, according to the now infamous leaked Gupta emails.

The Zondo Commission also heard how Zwane summoned banks to a “fake meeting” in a bid to convince them to save Gupta-linked accounts which they had decided to close.

Yup – these five MPs will be paid using your tax money.

We know that Cyril Ramaphosa is walking a tightrope at the moment, with the powerful pro-Zuma cabal threatening his position, but sending people like this back to the National Assembly wasn’t part of the ‘New Dawn’ most of us had hoped for.

[sources:businsider&news24]