Overpaid Eskom execs rake it in

Yes, while we sit in darkness for hours at a time, the executives running Eskom are forced to settle for pay packets in the millions, regardless of whether they actually keep Eskom going and the country electrified. According to Moneyweb:

As the furore around South African parastatal Eskom continues to explode, all kinds of inconvenient evidence is starting to rise to the top, just as certain brown stuff rises. One area where there can be no argument is over how much Eskom’s top brass has been paid, apparently with the mandate of emasculating the utility supplying 95% of the country’s electrical power.

The evidence for executive pay is found in the fine print of Eskom’s annual reports. In the past three financial years, Eskom’s top brass has been paid a total of R143m. This total includes bonuses, and, for 2005, extraordinarily high payments for “expiry of five-year contracts”, as if people on such bloated packages wouldn’t come back for more. Erstwhile Eskom CEO Thulani Gcabashe, who long ago qualified with a Bachelor of Arts in Botswana, was paid a mind-boggling R13,1m in 2005.

For years, Eskom executives have been paid “normal” bonuses running into millions of rands. Its top brass has lived the life of royalty, with monster Eskom-funded housing loans, and contributions for everything from retirement funding to fees for miscellaneous expenses. This is a gravy train of B-grade movie proportions, crushing anything in its way as its passengers wallow in bling.

Read the full article for more of this sad, sad tale.

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