CEOs of the 11 parastatals in the troubled Department of Transport have seen their combined salaries staying as high as R27m, despite the fact that the financial standing of most of those entities has worsened.
The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), Road Traffic Infringement Agency, South African Maritime Safety Authority, the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency, South African Civil Aviation Authority, the Road Traffic Management Corporation, Air Traffic Navigation Services, Road Accident Fund, Railway Safety Regulator and the Ports Regulator of SA are the parastatals that fall under the department.
In a reply to a parliamentary questions from DA MP Manny de Freitas, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said the combined basic salaries of the CEOs of the department’s entities had fallen from more than R30m in the 2014-15 financial year. The decline came about because Prasa had an acting CEO after Lucky Montana left.
The CEOs also enjoyed hundreds of thousands of rand in performance bonuses and other benefits. The department received a qualified audit from auditor-general Kimi Makwetu.
He mentioned leadership deficiencies, uncertainty caused by litigation and procurement weakness in most of these entities.
Among others, Prasa’s procurement woes are under investigation and Sanral’s e-tolling system on Gauteng’s freeways has long been the cause of apprehension, both politically and financially.
While a decrease was noted in the salary paid to the CEO of Prasa from R5.9m, the former acting CEO of the rail agency, Nathi Khena, was paid an acting allowance of R2.7m following the resignation of Montana.
"The salary increases that were received by the CEOs were in line with the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council resolutions for senior management service employees. There were no benefits awarded," Peters said.
De Freitas said the increases to CEO salaries were "almost proportional" in that "worse the entity does the more the salary goes up". He said he would submit a question to the minister to get more details on how entities determined salaries.
The department’s spokesman Ishmael Mnisi told Business Day that each entity had a standing committee on finance and internal audit committee which determined salaries and benefits and referred these to the board.
The Companies Act and the shareholders compact also gave guidance on each entity and the Companies Act applied to all of them, he said.
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