Eskom has confirmed that while workers below the senior management level at the entity will be getting a wage increase, its executives including group CEO Andre De Ruyter and chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer will not be getting any salary increase.

This past week, Eskom concluded wage negotiations with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and Solidarity, where labour got a 7% increase across the board.

The wage agreement followed weeks of protest disruptions due to a deadlock in wage talks that triggered Stage 6 load-shedding for several days. Eskom executives were not spared criticism for the crisis by South Africans.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha told Fin24 that top-level employees at Eskom have not received salary increases or a bonus for years.

"All managerial level employees have not received salary increases or bonuses since at least 2018. This year the lower-level managerial staff will be receiving the 7% increase agreed upon at the Central Bargaining Forum. Senior managers and executives in the F and E-Bands will still not be receiving any increases," said Mantshantsha.

With a zero percent increase on their salaries, De Ruyter and Oberholzer would still be earning salaries of R7-million and R5.4-million respectively, according to Eskom's financial statements for the year ended in March 2021.

In the year ended in March 2020, De Ruyter had a salary of R1.6-million, while Oberholzer's salary was still at R5.4-million. The variance in De Ruyter's salary between 2020 and 2021 is likely owed to his appointment only being announced in late 2019.

The total salary of executives at Eskom for the year ended in March 2021 was R11.9-million, compared to R9.8-million in the year ended in March of 2020.

During a deadlock at the Central Bargaining Forum, the NUM and Numsa were harshly critical of De Ruyter's management of Eskom. On Thursday, the secretary-general of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), Zwelinzima Vavi, called for the removal of the Eskom board as well as its executive committee. Saftu is the home federation of Numsa.

De Ruyter told reporters last week in the thick of the deadlock and its subsequent protest disruptions at various Eskom plants that he had no intention of resigning from his position.