{"id":212028,"date":"2021-12-21T10:14:59","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T08:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/cogta-works-on-payment-of-non-returning-councillors\/"},"modified":"2021-12-21T10:14:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T08:14:59","slug":"cogta-works-on-payment-of-non-returning-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cogta-works-on-payment-of-non-returning-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"Cogta works on payment of non-returning councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sanews.gov.za\/sites\/default\/files\/2012\/images\/newsstorytemplate\/202112\/cogtalogo.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has confirmed that it is in the process of finalising all processes for the payment of gratuity to all the qualifying non-returning former councillors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This comes after about 5 000 councillors were not re-elected to positions in the 1 November Local Government Elections.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Tuesday, ministry spokesperson Lungi Mtshali said the department remained the only viable vehicle that could effect payments to all qualifying former councillors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe payment of the gratuity to qualifying beneficiaries is made after conducting a series of checks and balances, including obtaining a tax directive from the South African Revenue Service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of Cooperative Governance is therefore in the process of validating the approximately 5 000 applications from all 257 municipalities across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Due to the thorough due diligence process that is required, payments will be processed as the verification processes are completed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have already started processing payments and it is envisaged that we will continue doing so into the New Year,\u201d Mtshali said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This information was also communicated in a circular that was issued to all municipalities by the department on 6 October 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Mtshali said all beneficiaries of the gratuity were requested to&nbsp;&nbsp;note the unfolding process and ensure to submit all required information for payments in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe department is working around the clock with all role players to ensure that the gratuity is processed and paid to beneficiaries ahead of the targeted date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe department will continue to provide updates regarding any new developments,\u201d he said. &#8211;&nbsp;<strong>SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has confirmed that it is in the process of finalising all processes for the payment of gratuity to all the qualifying non-returning former councillors.&nbsp; This comes after about 5 000 councillors were not re-elected to positions in the 1 November Local Government Elections. In a statement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-212028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cogta-works-on-payment-of-non-returning-councillors.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}