{"id":822590,"date":"2025-04-30T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T05:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=822590"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T08:01:07","slug":"the-south-african-ceo-whos-pay-fell-from-r290-million-to-r50-million-in-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/822590\/the-south-african-ceo-whos-pay-fell-from-r290-million-to-r50-million-in-three-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African CEO whose pay fell from R290 million to R50 million in three years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Neal Froneman, the outgoing CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, has seen his single-figure remuneration drop from R290 million in 2021 to R50 million in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Froneman has been the group’s CEO since 2013 and has been praised for turning it from a gold-focused operation into a diversified multinational with interests in platinum and palladium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Froneman’s high pay has been noted as a particular sore point in South Africa, which has the world’s highest levels of inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the company’s strong performance in 2021, buoyed by a commodity boom, Froneman’s single-figure remuneration rose to an eye-watering R292 million, which was linked to long-term share incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure would then drop to just over R198 million in 2022, before hitting R56 million in 2023 when the group reported a R37.9 billion loss after taking an impairment against its US palladium mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s challenges saw it lay off well over 5,000 jobs at its PGM operations amid a global price drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the group’s loss narrowed to R5.7 billion, which was attributed to significant restructuring efforts and weaker platinum and nickel markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the group’s problems, Froneman still received R50.9 million in single-figure remuneration, with R23 million in South Africa and R27 million in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Froneman’s fellow executives also scored large pay packages, with CFO Charl Keyter scoring R23.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americas Regional Officer Charles Carter received R34 million, and Chief Commercial & Development Officer Laurent Charbonnier got R43.9 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Regional Officer of Europe Mika Seitovirta also received R26.7 million, while Chief Technical and Innovation Officer Robert van Niekerk got R23.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Sibanye’s struggles, Froneman benefited from a put option in the first half of 2024 after the company’s share price tanked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A put option gives the holder of the option the right, but not the obligation, to sell an asset at a predetermined price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the group’s share price dropping to R18 early last year, Froneman exercised his put option at a strike price of R66.24, pocketing over R95 million while thousands of employees were laid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/strong> <\/td>Froneman Single-Figure Remuneration<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2021<\/td>R292 million.<\/td><\/tr>
2022<\/td>R198 million<\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/td>R56 million<\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/td>R51 million<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Source: Sibanye-Stillwater<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A new CEO incoming<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Froneman will soon leave the group, retiring from his role effective 30 September 2025 after over a decade in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Stewart, currently the Chief Regional Officer for the Southern Africa region and who scored a R20.6 million pay package in 2024, will succeed Froneman as CEO and executive director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart was appointed CEO designate and executive director on 1 March 2025, continuing his responsibilities in Southern Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRichard\u2019s appointment follows an independent, best practice succession process overseen by the Board, said Sibanye-Stillwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRichard\u2019s appointment is a testament to the quality and depth of leadership at Sibanye-Stillwater and the well-considered and effective Group succession planning processes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart joined the group in 2014 and has held several key roles, including his current role as COO and executive vice president of business development since 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Froneman’s legacy at Sibanye received praise from board chairperson Vincent Maphai, who highlighted how Froneman was tasked with a challenging initial turnaround of the three mature gold mines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the significantly more profitable and stable base that was established, he subsequently drove the strategic growth and diversification of the Group into what it is today,” said Maphai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that Stewart\u2019s appointment \u201cwill ensure continuity and a seamless leadership transition, allowing the leadership team to take the group to new heights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outgoing Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman has seen his single-figure remuneration drop by R240 million in just three years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":769889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22414],"class_list":["post-822590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-sibanye-stillwater-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822590","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822590"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822693,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822590\/revisions\/822693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}