Figures contained in the recently released annual financial reports lay bare how most South African JSE-listed companies are perpetuating income disparities by giving obscene remuneration packages to top managers while staff members are subjected to single-digit average annual salary increases.
Sunday World this week compared the salaries of Old Mutual, Standard Bank Group, Nedbank Group and MTN Group top management against the average increases of their staff.
Old Mutual’s chief executive Iain Williamson saw his remuneration package galloping by 32% to R41.2-million per annum from R31.3-million a year. The financial services firm’s chief financial officer, Casper Troskie, was rewarded with an 27.3% increase to R22.4-million per annum from R17.6-million.
The company generated an annual 10% profit growth to R8.4-billion after tax from R7.6-billion in the previous year. This resulted in Old Mutual’s 11 top managers getting R186-million remuneration packages in total for the 2024 financial year, while employees received an 8.9% increase.
Last week, Sunday World revealed that Standard Bank Group chief executive Sim Tshabalala saw his total remuneration package in 2024 rise by 7.1% to a cool R89-million from the R83-million he earned in 2023, while his staff members received a 3% increase.
These financial rewards come as Standard Bank Group, the largest bank by assets in Africa, saw its profit grow by 11% to R19.7-billion for the 2024 financial year.
The group also reported R45-billion of headline earnings and a return on equity of 18.5%. This performance is underpinned by continued balance sheet growth, lower credit impairment charges and flat costs in the banking franchise. The group also posted a robust performance in insurance & asset management.
Tshabalala’s outgoing deputy Kenny Fihla, who was this week announced as the incoming chief executive of Absa Bank, saw his total remuneration package decrease to R67 292 000 from R69 903 000.
However, the chief executive of Nedbank, Jason Quinn, was welcomed to the bank with a total remuneration package of R106-million, while his staff members received a 7.1% -average salary increase. Quinn’s predecessor, Mike Brown, received R46-million total remuneration package in 2023.
Nedbank Group’s profit for the 2024 financial year rose by 8.7% to R18.5-billion from R17-billion.
Despite making a loss in the financial year ending 2024, Ralph Mupita, the chief executive Africa’s biggest mobile network provider MTN Group earned a 46% increase to R92-million from R63-million in the previous year.
The hefty income increases were effected after the company made a loss of R11.2-billion in 2024 compared to a R4-billion profit in the 2023 financial year.
MTN’s other top managers received a 4% salary increase to R175-million from R168-million, while the staff costs, which include salaries, on average decreased by 22% to R9.5-billion from R12.2-billion.
In an article published in The Conversation in August, Wits University professor Imraan Valodia said: “As someone who studies issues of inequality and sustainability, I have argued before that South Africa’s income inequality is the highest of all countries that have data on this.
“This means that the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than in any other country.”
Integrated Reporting and Assurance Service’s managing partner Michael Rea told Sunday World that his firm’s research showed that the typical income disparity ratio indicates that the average JSE-listed executive earns roughly 32 times what the average employee earns.
“This may also show why most South Africans would be shocked to know that the CEO of Old Mutual earned R32.3 million for the 12 months ending 31 December 2024, of which at least some of this income could be tied to an award for shedding over 7 000 jobs since December 2020 (a 24% decrease in their total workforce),” he said.
