Telkom CEO

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – NOVEMBER 10: Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko briefs the media on November 10, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Maseko said the state would consider the company’s needs for future growth when selling its stake. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sunday Times / Moeletsi Mabe)

Telkom CEO pockets a whopping R27 million paycheck

If you think that’s a big payday – check out who else got a slice of Telkom’s R150 million executive salary cake.

Telkom CEO

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – NOVEMBER 10: Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko briefs the media on November 10, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Maseko said the state would consider the company’s needs for future growth when selling its stake. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sunday Times / Moeletsi Mabe)

Telkom CEO, Sipho Maseko, earned a total of R27 million in the 2018 financial year. South Africa’s telecommunications provider has released its integrated financial report – and the salaries are staggering.

While Telkom may be one of the better performing state-owned enterprises (SOE)– let’s be honest, the bar isn’t set too high – yearly salaries for high-level executives exceed R150 million.

Business Tech first reported on Telkom’s financial report, detailing amounts paid to the CEO, CFO and 10 prescribed officers.

At the top of the cash pile is CEO Maseko, whose total payment package totalling includes:

  • A basic salary of R8.05 million
  • A short-term incentive bonus of R7.58 million
  • A long-term incentive bonus of R11.56 million

Second in line is Deon Fredericks, the company’s Chief information officer. He collected a cool R13.6 million for the same period of work. This puts the top two Telkom executive earnings at over R40 million.

10 executives who earned R113.2 million

While the cream of the telecommunication crop was reserved for Maseko and Fredericks, 10 other executives were also rewarded handsomely for their work efforts.

According to Business Tech, Telkom’s Deputy CFO Tsholofelo Molefe, who has been appointed as the new CFO of the group, was paid R7.2 million, while retired chief information officer (CIO) Len de Villiers earned R14.3 million.

Do executives deserve the millions?

Unlike some other SOE’s, Telkom isn’t bankrupt, and it’s shown strong signs of financial growth in recent years.

However, currently, Telkom’s profits are down. In the last financial year, company operating earnings dropped 6.55%.

Profits dipped even lower following tax – a 19.2% decrease, attributed to an increase in the taxation expense, and decrease on earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation.

While a dip in performance is indicated by the most recent financial report, Telkom remains positive that a rapidly expanding mobile market will swell profits in the near future.

According to the report, the telecommunications giant has managed to secure 5.2 million mobile subscribers.

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