The man who was paid R12 million a year running a state-owned enterprise

Efficient Group Chief Economist Dawie Roodt said that Eskom CEO Dan Marokane’s R11.7 million salary raises questions about whether this was justified.

Eskom increased its chief executive’s salary by nearly R5 million in the 2025 financial year, despite the company being in serious financial distress.

The state-owned company also increased the annual salaries of its staff by an average of R167,000, the biggest nominal increase in history.

In addition, Eskom increased its employee count from 40,625 to 42,030, even as the company sought to cut costs.

Roodt responded to the issue, saying that Eskom’s contribution to the economy up to the first quarter on a year-on-year basis decreased by 4.3%.

“So, we gave the boss of Eskom a bonus of millions despite the fact that Eskom’s contribution to the economy is negative,” he said.

Many people argued that Marokane deserved a large salary because he manages a large budget. However, Roodt dismissed this argument.

“If that is the argument, then one must say the Minister of Finance’s salary must be much higher because his budget is much larger than Eskom’s,” he said.

Another argument is that Marokane led the team which helped to end load-shedding, which deserves recognition through a big bonus.

“The argument against that is that the real reason why we have less loadshedding is that the private sector has installed many more solar panels,” he said.

“So, we pay the boss of Eskom more money, but the reason why we have less loadshedding has to do with the private sector.”

Roodt said the correct answer is that Eskom is just a department within the civil service. “It’s not really a company,” he said.

“The right thing to do is to privatise Eskom, so that the market determines what the right salary is for the bosses of Eskom.”