{"id":20334,"date":"2012-08-22T13:20:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T11:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=20334"},"modified":"2012-08-22T13:40:28","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T11:40:28","slug":"sitting-in-the-pound-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/20334\/sitting-in-the-pound-seats\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitting in the pound seats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Running a country is like running a business, but heads of state in general can’t expect to earn as much as those who run corporate firms.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, it was estimated that\u00a0President Jacob Zuma could cost SA taxpayers more than R500 million over five years. This is according to analysis based on the Ministerial Handbook.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Alliance\u2019s director of political analysis and development, Gareth van Onselen, who\u00a0wrote a blog in his own personal capacity (published on www.inside-politics.org) used the Ministerial Handbook as a guide to calculate the figure.<\/p>\n

In September last year (2011), the National Assembly approved a 5% boost to South African President, Jacob Zuma’s annual salary, taking the country’s head from earning R2.36 million per annum, to R2.48 million.<\/p>\n

When comparing Zuma’s salary to the highest paid heads of state in the world, the South African chief sits well within the top ten.<\/p>\n

However, while R2 million-plus is well above the means a majority of South Africans would ever see pass through their bank accounts, the president’s salary pales in comparison to those of SA’s highest-paid telecom and tech CEOs.<\/p>\n

The top execs at South Africa’s biggest mobile operators earn well into the millions of rands – as a basic salary – and CEOs, Pieter Uys (Vodacom) and Sifiso Dabengwa (MTN Group) earn over three times as much as President Zuma.<\/p>\n

In fact, with the exception of Singaporean prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong – who earns a whopping R23.76 million a year – SA’s top CEOs earn more than most of the world’s heads of state.<\/p>\n

Note: Comparisons were done on basic salaries, and do not include bonuses and incentives or take into account presidential costs to state.<\/small><\/p>\n

Highest paid heads of state in the world (basic salary)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nName<\/strong><\/td>\nPosition<\/strong><\/td>\nSalary*<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nLee Hsien Loong<\/td>\nPrime Minister Of Singapore<\/td>\nR23,762,422<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nDonald Tsang<\/td>\nChief Executive of Hong Kong<\/td>\nR4,268,898<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nRaila Odinga<\/td>\nPrime Minister of Kenya<\/td>\nR3,560,437<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nBarack Obama<\/td>\nPresident Of United States<\/td>\nR3,328,266<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nNicolas Sarkozy<\/td>\nPresident of France<\/td>\nR2,874,149<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/strong><\/td>\nJacob Zuma<\/strong><\/td>\nPresident Of South Africa<\/strong><\/td>\nR2,485,839**<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nStephen Harper<\/td>\nPrime Minister of Canada<\/td>\nR2,466,091<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nMary McAleese<\/td>\nPresident of Ireland<\/td>\nR2,394,627<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nJulia Gillard<\/td>\nPrime Minister of Australia<\/td>\nR2,385,358<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nAngela Merkel<\/td>\nChancellor of Germany<\/td>\nR2,359,204<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

*Converted 20 August 2012: 1 USD = 8.31854 ZAR<\/small>
\n**After 5% salary increase for 2012<\/small><\/p>\n

Telecom CEO salaries in South Africa (basic salary)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/strong><\/td>\nName<\/strong><\/td>\nPosition<\/strong><\/td>\nSalary<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nPieter Uys<\/td>\nVodacom CEO<\/td>\nR7,083,750<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nSifiso Dabengwa<\/td>\nMTN Group CEO<\/td>\nR7,133,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nMark Levy<\/td>\nBlue Label Telecom CEO<\/td>\nR5,965,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nBrett Levy<\/td>\nBlue Label Telecom CEO<\/td>\nR5,958,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nCraig Venter<\/td>\nAltech CEO<\/td>\nR4,812,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nReuben September<\/td>\nTelkom CEO*<\/td>\nR2,583,881<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

*Reuben September was Telkom\u2019s CEO until 7 July 2010. He was Telkom\u2019s CEO for 3 months before departing, and still earned his salary for the time he spent at the company over that financial year.<\/small><\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Executives paid too much: research<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Salary shootout: Vodacom vs. MTN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Top-earning telecom CEOs in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

How does your salary compare with international standards?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SA ICT salaries for 2012 revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running a country is like running a business, but don’t expect to earn as much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":20474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[311,1653,1654,3893,867,26,83,1507,28,87,2294,1439,1890,65,27],"class_list":["post-20334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-altech","tag-blue-label-telecom","tag-brett-levy","tag-ceos","tag-craig-venter","tag-headline","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-mark-levy","tag-mtn","tag-pieter-uys","tag-reuben-september","tag-salaries","tag-sifiso-dabengwa","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20334"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20477,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions\/20477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}