The Eskom board of directors was paid more than R10 million in board fees during the 2023/24 financial year, while the entity’s employees pocketed R3 billion in overtime during the same period.

This was disclosed by Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa when he was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Mandla Shikwambana, who enquired about the annual expenditure on overtime for Eskom employees and the circumstances under which overtime was paid.

Shikwambana also wanted to know whether the 22 board meetings, averaging two meetings per month, as reported in the 2024 annual report, were pre-planned and the reasons for not planning them.

He also asked the total remuneration of each board member and whether the board members were subject to individual performance reviews.

In his written response, Ramokgopa said employees pocketed R3.03 billion during the 2023/24 financial year

He said the payment was for work outside the normal working hours that was approved for an emergency during a standby period, breakdown of plant, pre-arranged plant maintenance, commissioning of plant, authorised construction work on site or critical personnel shortages only for short periods not exceeding one month, among other things.

“Approximately 92% of the workforce is eligible for overtime,” Ramokgopa said.

He said 22 board meetings were held, and at least 10 were pre-scheduled for the period between April 2023 and March 2024.

He said non-executive directors had not been paid per meeting but had received a fixed annual fee based on their committee allocations.

“This fixed fee implicitly covered participation in up to eight scheduled board meetings. The remaining 14 meetings that exceeded the planned schedule did not attract any additional fees.”

Ramokgopa also said the additional meetings had been convened on an ad hoc basis to address urgent and time-sensitive matters that had required the immediate attention of the board.

“Several of these engagements had been necessitated by unforeseen and evolving developments. These additional meetings had not resulted in any additional payment of fees to the non-executive directors,” he said.

The additional meetings had primarily dealt with the group chief executive recruitment, National Transmission Company of South Africa board of directors recruitment, and the unbundling matters.

Board chairperson Mteto Nyati was paid R1.3m, Fathima Gany R1,081,000, Claudelle von Eck R1,061,000, Clive Le Roux R1 058 000 and Tryphosa Ramano R1,018,000.

Other board members – Leslie Mkhabela, Busisiwe Vilakazi, Bheki Ntshalintshali, Tsakani Mthombeni, Ayanda Mafuleka and Lwazi Goqwana – were paid amounts ranging from R933,000 to R676,000.

Ramokgopa said the amounts paid included fees for both board meetings and sub-committee meetings.

“The non-executive directors were remunerated by way of a fixed annual fee, which was determined based on their allocation to specific committees. This fee structure was not linked to the number of meetings attended. In addition to the fixed fee, non-executive directors were reimbursed for any reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the execution of their duties,” said the minister.

He further said that a collective assessment approach was currently in place based on the principle of a board of directors functioning as one unit.

“The last collective performance assessment of the board was undertaken in the financial year of 2024, and the outcomes of this assessment were shared with the shareholder representative.”

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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