The monthly salary of a South African Member of Parliament is 20 times the country’s median monthly salary of R5,200.

The country’s 400 MPs received a R300,000 pay rise in April, with salaries increasing to R1.27-million a year. This works out at R106,200 a month. Ten years ago, MPs earned R989,900 a year, or R82,490 a month.

MP salaries increased by 29% between 2014 and 2024, which is below inflation of 63% over the same period.

Public office bearers usually receive an annual salary increase in April. In 2016, however, no increases were granted because of the ‘dire state of the economy’. And in early 2020, during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, MPs salaries dipped slightly.