Municipalities wasted at least R4.5-million paying the salaries of suspended municipal managers in the 2007/08 financial year, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.

This figure related to 23 municipalities in five provinces, said DA spokesperson on local government Willem Doman in a statement.

"In 22 cases municipalities are contravening the Municipal Performance Regulations for Municipal Managers which were gazetted in August 2006, which stipulates that a municipal manager may be suspended for a maximum of 60 days."

Some of these municipal managers had been on suspension for more than a year, indicating that councils were failing to perform some of their most basic functions on time.

Municipal managers helped municipalities manage their resources wisely. Their absence had an adverse impact on the capacity of municipalities to deliver basic services.

"Money that should be dedicated to enhancing their capacity to perform their functions, is used to reward officials who are sitting at home doing nothing," he added.