Here’s how much Andre de Ruyter and other top Eskom directors are paid

Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has published updated salary data for Eskom’s board of directors – including tenure and how much they are paid.

In accordance with its memorandum of incorporation, directors serving on Eskom’s board are appointed on a three-year term, which is reviewed annually by the government. Directors may serve up to three terms, subject to government approval, Gordhan said in response to a recent written parliamentary Q&A.

The data shows current chief financial officer Calib Cassim is the Eskom board member with the longest tenure of four years and ten months. By comparison, Chief executive André de Ruyter has spent the shortest amount of time on the board at two years and four months.

Gordhan also detailed how much each director was paid over the last five years, with non-executive director salaries ranging from around R600,000 – R1.6 million in 2022.

By comparison, de Ruyter is the highest-earning board member at R7.04 million, while Cassim takes home R4.9 million.

The hardest job in South Africa

While the position of Eskom chief executive has previously been described as the ‘toughest job’ in South Africa, it is also one of the most scrutinised, and de Ruyter and his team have faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks as the country’s load shedding has worsened to record outages.

In its latest advisory, Eskom warned that it will implement stage 2 load shedding all week, during peak evening hours from 17h00 to 22h00. This is due to the continued shortage of generation capacity it has been experiencing, the power utility said.

“While there may be instances where load shedding might need to be implemented outside of these hours, as far as possible Eskom will endeavour to limit the implementation of load shedding to the evening peak in order to limit the impact of the capacity shortages on the public,” it said.

“Eskom will continue to closely monitor the system, adjust and communicate any changes as may be necessary. We appeal to all South Africans to help limit the impact of load shedding by reducing the usage of electricity and to switch off all non-essential items.”

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