{"id":870786,"date":"2026-08-18T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870786"},"modified":"2026-08-18T16:54:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T14:54:57","slug":"the-south-african-ceo-who-went-from-earning-under-r2000-to-r2-1-million-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/870786\/the-south-african-ceo-who-went-from-earning-under-r2000-to-r2-1-million-a-month\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African CEO who went from earning under R2,000 to R2.1 million a month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Felicia Msiza\u2019s career has taken her from earning less than R2,000 a month as a young articled clerk to heading a major South African infrastructure and construction group\u2014earning over R2.1 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Msiza is the CEO of Raubex, one of South Africa\u2019s leading infrastructure development and construction materials supply groups, with operations across southern Africa and Western Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group manages assets worth around R7.5 billion and has around 19,000 employees, including 9,200 directly employed by Raubex and a further 9,800 indirectly employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Msiza was born in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, and later moved with her family to Soshanguve, north of the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She attended Agnes Chidi Primary School, Memezelo High School, and then Promat Private College, where she completed matric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She went on to study towards a BCom degree, initially registering at the University of Pretoria and completing her qualification at Vista University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She subsequently obtained a Higher Tax Diploma and an MBA. Her interest in strategy, governance and risk later led her to qualify as a Chartered Director (South Africa) through the Institute of Directors South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Msiza started her professional career as an articled clerk at Deloitte, where she said she earned less than R2,000 a month. More than two decades later, her remuneration has increased dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Raubex\u2019s latest integrated report, her total emoluments increased by 32% in the 2026 financial year to R25.58 million, up from R19.38 million in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This works out to an average of about R2.13 million a month. Her basic salary rose by 6% in line with inflation. However, performance-linked remuneration accounted for much of the increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her short-term incentive bonus increased by 42%, while her long-term incentive award rose by 67.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s chairman, Rudolf Fourie, linked the remuneration to the group\u2019s operational performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaubex delivered a solid performance across its key operations, demonstrating the Group\u2019s resilience in a year marked by persistent headwinds,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also credited the executive committee, saying that the dedication and resilience demonstrated by Exco have played a pivotal role in sustaining Raubex\u2019s growth trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raubex’s strong growth <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the most notable improvements was the turnaround in the Materials Handling and Mining Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operating profit increased from just R4.2 million in 2025 to R444.9 million in 2026. The division\u2019s operating margin consequently improved from 0.1% to 10.8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bauba Resources\u2019 mining operations played a significant role in the improvement, with the business moving from an operating loss of R235.8 million to an operating profit of R243.7 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PGM plant at the Kookfontein mine was also successfully commissioned, with the company reporting that \u201cPGM production exceeded expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raubex\u2019s Infrastructure division also recorded strong growth. Revenue increased by 30.2% to R4.35 billion, while operating profit climbed 42.2% to R426.9 million, supported by South African built-environment and renewable-energy contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group\u2019s secured order book grew 11.6% to R31.46 billion, which the company described as \u201cmeaningful earnings visibility to stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its net asset value increased 10.1% to R7.87 billion, while its debt covenant gearing ratio of 0.42 remained below the 0.70 limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raubex was also named the preferred bidder for the Lebombo Border Post project, part of a government programme to upgrade six major border posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the group reported a 44% reduction in lost-time injuries, with its overall rate falling to 0.19 against an internal target limit of 1.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Msiza has also received external recognition, having been announced as the African Business Leader of the Year for 2025 by African Leadership Magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Felicia Msiza went from earning less than R2,000 a month as a young articled clerk to heading a major South African infrastructure and construction group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":870834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2089729291495862559","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2179881356165597","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18332598430275639","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26210,2231,853],"class_list":["post-870786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-felicia-msiza","tag-raubex","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870786","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870786"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870823,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870786\/revisions\/870823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}