Politically opportunistic: Tshwane mayor responds to R270,000 salary overpayment backlash

Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya plans to repay the City of Tshwane (CoT) approximately R270,000 that she was erroneously overpaid six years ago. 

In a letter responding to the Democratic Alliance (DA) mayoral candidate for Tshwane, Cillers Brink, Moya said that she received a once-off payment of R268,975.51 from the CoT when she was Chief of Staff.

She said that this was part of a “benchmarking-related salary adjustment.” The City was reclassified from Category A grade nine to grade ten, allowing city officials an upward salary adjustment.

According to Moya, she was one of 78 officials who received the increase. 

Former Finance MMC Jacqui Uys, who is now the Tshwane DA Chief Whip, said that the DA has been asking Moya to clarify the overpayment since January 2025.

“Most of the officials who had received these undue payments have already paid back the money, or made payment arrangements with the City,” said Uys.

“It is unfortunate that Mayor Moya had to be prompted publicly to do what is right.”

Uys said that this is not the first time Moya has been implicated in an event of overpayment. “Moya has got a history with the city of Tshwane, where she got payments and didn’t pay this money back.”

When she was appointed as Deputy Mayor, R10,000 was given to Moya for an overseas trip, which she did not take. “To her credit, this money was repaid to the city once she became deputy mayor,” Uys said.

Moya responds

Moya said in a letter to Brink that his “recent interest in this matter is surprising,” claiming that no steps were taken to address the debt during Brink’s tenure as Executive Mayor in 2023 and 2024. 

The mayor said that the payment was authorised by the Group Head of Human Capital Management, pending a citywide benchmarking exercise. This exercise was completed in July 2020, two months after Moya resigned as Chief of Staff.

Following the benchmarking exercise, the final salary grading in 2020 showed that the officials were overpaid in 2019, something Moya said she was “not informed of at the time.”

Moya said she only became aware of the overpayment in July, 2024, when the City sent her an SMS regarding “an alleged debt”. She has since voluntarily authorised a monthly repayment to the City.

She said increases paid to officials no longer employed by the city should be reported to and dealt with by the Mayoral Committee. “No steps were taken to engage former employees, including myself, regarding repayment,” Moya said. 

Moya said she escalated the issue to the City Manager and has been cooperating in investigating the overpayment. 

“I have consistently called for the matter to be resolved for all affected officials, something that was regrettably not pursued by my predecessors, including yourself,” she said in her letter to Brink. 

Calls for transparency “politically opportunistic,” says ActionSA

According to the Tshwane mayor, the investigation showed no wrongdoing from beneficiaries, but the political and administrative handling of the matter is what warrants scrutiny. 

Additionally, Moya said that recent public statements on the payment “appear disingenuous at best and politically opportunistic at worst,” given that these were not addressed during their tenure.

ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont said this is the DA’s “latest stunt” to discredit the mayor.

Beaumont added that former DA mayor Randall Williams issued a directive in 2021 that prevents increases from being recovered by senior managers who have left the employ of the city. 

The party condemned these “unsubstantiated allegations” against leaders like Herman Mashaba and Moya as part of an attempt to undermine the credibility of “strong, effective black leadership.”

“This is done with no appreciation for the irony of the countless serious allegations against former DA Mayors who have been implicated in Glad Afrika, questionable hijackings, Kratos unsolicited bids, and sex scandals in our capital city,” Beaumont said.