Eskom pays R18.3 million in performance bonuses while South Africans foot the bill for tariff hikes

5 July 2016

Eskom’s Integrated Report 2016 on the entity’s financial performance for the 2015/2016 financial year has revealed that Eskom bosses received R18.3 million in short and long term performance bonuses. This would mean that an average of R1.6 million in the last financial year was doled-out for 11 Eskom directors and executives for keeping the lights on.

With ordinary taxpayers covering the bill for a R23 billion Eskom bailout in 2015, the average person in the street would be devastated to see bonuses of such magnitude being paid out. 

Since the initial electricity blackouts in South Africa in 2008, the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) has granted Eskom an annual average increase of 22% a year for seven years. Further, earlier this year Eskom was granted a 9.4% electricity tariff hike to be footed by the ordinary South African consumer on top of these exorbitant bonus that should be used to provide stable electricity supply for the countless businesses and households across the country.

To add insult to injury, the ANC government has tabled no coherent plan to mitigate the effects of the drought that has driven the high price of food. This has been compounded further by the below-inflation grants that diminish the ability of the poor to put food on the table.

Eskom has claimed in the past that bonuses were awarded because the state owned entity has managed to intermittently stave off load-shedding. Eskom executives would do well to remember that they have one job, to keep the lights on and that is what their salaries are for.

Since load-shedding began in 2008, Eskom executives have received over R73 million in bonuses excluding the R18.3 million revealed today. This is an insult to hard-working and poor South Africans who continue to struggle without a stable supply of electricity and basic services.

Energy is the life blood of our economy. Without a stable supply, businesses will not be able to grow, investors will not invest, and ultimately joblessness will increase.

As the South African economy faces shocks on various fronts, including a devastating drought the effects of which remain to be seen, we cannot afford for millions of rands to be plundered into underserved salaries while there is still much uncertainty in the energy sector and the sustainability of our electricity supply.

On 03 August the South African people have a golden opportunity to vote for a DA government that puts money into providing the people of our country with services and not lining the pockets of a few ANC appointed fat cats.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, 5 July 2016