Eskom shells out R12m in board fees, R3bn in overtime in 2023/24

TimesLIVE

9 hours ago

Eskom board members were paid a total of R12.1m in annual board fees between April 1 2023 and 31 March 31 2024, minister of electricity and energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said.
This is contained in a written reply to MPs released to the media on Tuesday.
EFF MP Mandla Shikwambana asked the minister about the annual expenditure on overtime for Eskom employees and the circumstances under which overtime is paid.
He also asked whether, according to the 2024 Eskom annual report, the board held 22 meetings, averaging two meetings per month, if the meetings were pre-planned and why those that were unplanned occurred.
'Based on the principle of a board of directors functioning as one unit, a collective assessment approach is in place. The last collective performance assessment of the board was undertaken in the financial year 2024, and the outcomes of this assessment were shared with the shareholder representative,' Ramokgopa said in the written reply.
Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati and non-executive directors Fathima Gany, Tryphosa Ramano, Claudelle von Eck and Clive le Roux were all paid more than R1m in board fees during the period. Non-executive director Rod Crompton earned the lowest quantum in board fees among listed board members at R676,000.
'During the reporting period, a total of 22 board meetings were held. Of these, 10 meetings had been pre-scheduled in the annual board calendar.
'In accordance with the approved fee structure, non-executive directors had not been paid per meeting but had received a fixed annual fee based on their committee allocations.'
The minister said this fixed fee had implicitly covered participation in up to eight scheduled board meetings. The remaining 14 meetings, which had exceeded the planned schedule, had not attracted any additional fees.
'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.'
Ramokgopa said the additional meetings primarily dealt with the group CEO recruitment process, recruitment for the National Transmission Company of SA and other unbundling matters.
The minister said in addition to the fixed fee they received, non-executive directors were reimbursed for any reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the execution of their duties.
In the same written reply, Ramokgopa told Shikwambana that Eskom spent R3.03bn paying staff overtime between April 1 2023 and March 31 2024.
Ramokgopa said this was in instances where work beyond the hours stipulated for staff typically included an emergency during a standby period, breakdown of plant, pre-arranged plant maintenance, or commissioning of plant.
Other instances were authorised construction work on site, preventive and protective services, staff emergencies during continuous shift work, abnormal emergency services, special tasks on a one-time basis, exceptional cases when set target dates could not be met, and critical personnel shortages only for short periods not exceeding one month.
'About 92% of the workforce is eligible for overtime.'