Do the CEO's of state-owned enterprises deserve the bonuses they get?

Stephen Grootes speaks to Andrew Woodburn, Managing Director at Amrop WoodburnMann, about whether CEOs truly earn the eye watering bonuses they receive and what this says about leadership, performance and corporate responsibility.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

If we don't pay bonuses to people who run the country's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), do we run the risk of not acquiring the best people for the job?

South Africa has nearly 700 SOEs, and an estimated R400 million is spent on executive salaries in each year.

But are the best available people running those SOEs? They are certainly getting paid the big bucks.

Some of the well-known SOEs include Eskom, Transnet, Prasa and the Development Bank of South Africa.

The Transnet CEO earns R8.5 million a year, despite ongoing issues plaguing the country's ports.

The Prasa CEO earns close to R8 million, even though the passenger rail network across the country operates inefficiently. 

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Andrew Woodburn, Managing Director at Amrop WoodburnMann says the average South African finds it difficult to justify bonuses.

We're still incredibly frustrated, that those in service is us, the citizenry who pay tax, are not delivering. Then we're flabbergasted about how the road accident fund and others are awarded massive multi-million rand payouts..."

- Andrew Woodburn, Managing Director - Amrop WoodburnMann

"This is one of the failures of our SOEs. That the boards are appointed by their political principles. You may call that, at worst cadre-deployment. Or you may call that at best, technical experts who understand the mandate of the SOE."

- Andrew Woodburn, Managing Director - Amrop WoodburnMann

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.