It's time to show state's overfed gravy trainers the door
September 14, 2009
By Donwald Pressly
Working at the upper echelons of political office, the public service and the parastatals is no longer poorly paid.
The most ordinary MP now earns more than R700 000 a year, ministers make nearly double that and then we hear the news that the repeatedly loss-making Denel - an organisation for which there appears to be little need - has paid its executives an amount that opposition ID MP Lance Greyling describes as "sickening".
Indeed, one wonders how Denel's chief executive, Talib Sadik, manages to get by on a mere R5.6 million a year - a snip at R466 666 a month, or just R15 555 a day.
He is in dire need of a R1.6m bonus. The cost of living has risen massively in the last year, has it not?
Greyling, noting that half of the population is living in grinding poverty, describes Denel as "a financial trough designed for the fattened snouts of a privileged elite, all at the considerable expense of the South African taxpayer".
Never a truer word said. Why, indeed, are we giving bonuses to this man when the arms maker asks for bailouts year after year. Denel deserves to go out of business.
At a meeting of Parliament's international relations committee last week, I happened upon a demoted minister who objected to my eating the sandwiches apparently meant for MPs.
Putting a sandwich where the mouth was, I noted that I was a taxpayer and probably had paid for the sandwiches anyway.
Perhaps not a very original argument, but it is time that the arrogance of increasingly overfed politicians - and all the other gravy trainers - is exposed.
Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga last week said he had "taken note" of the concerns about staff bonuses.
It is time that the ANC MPs - not just the opposition parliamentarians who ask the uncomfortable questions - stand up and be counted.
It is time to say enough is enough. Surely the deserving time for bonuses and performance share payments is when one produces a balance sheet reporting profit growth, speeds up service delivery and when one is not rushing to the state to ask for loan guarantees and for increases in the electricity price of 50 percent.
Maroga received R4.9m in the 2008/09 financial year, up R1m from the previous period.
At a time when Eskom reported a loss of nearly R10 billion, he stands to benefit from "outstanding award performance shares" vesting on March 31, 2011. He has just over 4 million of them. The current estimated vesting value of the share is R1.33 each for the awards from April 2007 - the year of major blackouts.
The performance shares awarded on April 1, 2005 and redeemed during the last financial year by Maroga were worth R678 941.
Before I am accused of racism, Eskom's head of generation, Brian Dames, received nearly R3m in annual salary and R666 338 for redeeming performance shares. Bobby Godsell, the chairman, received R740 000 just to attend meetings.
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