Magufuli pay cut beats Uhuru and other African heads of state

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has publicly declared his monthly salary.

Live on TV Thursday morning, President Magufuli told the world that he slashed his monthly salary to Sh400,000 a month.

This makes him one of the lowest paid African leaders as he pursues his policy of deep public spending cuts.

This is a fraction of what his neighbour - Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta - earns, and less than a half of the amount earned by members of Uhuru’s Cabinet.

Uhuru earns Sh1.4 million a month, his deputy, William Ruto, is paid Sh1.2 million, while Cabinet secretaries get Sh924,000.

President Magufuli’s salary does not even come close to Kenya’s principal secretaries, who are paid Sh765,000 a month.

Magafuli’s monthly paycheck pales in comparison with South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, who earns around $20,000 (Sh2 million) a month, following a salary increase by parliament in 2015. Since 2009, Zuma has been embroiled in numerous scandals and allegations of abuse of office, including more than $500,000 of improper state spending on security at his private home.

Others with more modest pay include President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, who took a 50 per cent pay cut when he took office in May 2015. The annual presidential salary was previously set at 14.1 million naira (about Sh4 million).

The least paid world leader is the Pope, who, in addition to being the religious leader of Catholics, is also the head of the Vatican state. For heading a population of Catholics the size of Africa’s, the Pope earns zero in salary.

President Magufuli, in a speech to local officials in Dar es Salaam Tuesday, also said his government had slashed the salaries of executives at state-owned companies to 15 million Tanzanian shillings (Sh683,000) a month.

This is till a higher salary than his own.

“They can leave if they don’t want it,” he said.

He said abuse of public funds was ‘rampant’ at state firms and that he had rejected requests from some local officials to more than double their allowances, saying he could not do so while many citizens lacked access to water, health care, and electricity.

Other presidents who have turned down perks that come with the highest office include Uruguay’s former president Jose Mujica, who gave away 90 per cent of his $12,000 (Sh1.2 million) salary, drove a Volkswagen Beetle, and lived in a simple one-storey house in the outskirts of Uruguay capital Montevideo.

US President Donald Trump earns $400,000 (Sh40 million) a year. While he did not take a pay cut, the US President gave away his salary to the department’s of Education and Interior.

The decision by Magufuli to slash the wages of public officials and declare his earnings publicly are of interest to Kenya, which has been struggling to cut its wage bill.

The money paid to government workers has in the past been described as unsustainable.

[email protected]