By Staff Writer
South Africa’s power utility Eskom has paid R4.2 billion in bonus to its staff members in 2017 compared to R2.1 billion in 2016, which translates to R88 000 per employee.
“If the total amount allocated for bonuses is divided by all 47 658 of Eskom’s employees, each one would have received a bonus of at least R88 000,” City Press newspaper reported on Sunday.
The newspaper added that even the employees in the purchasing department, which was responsible for the qualified audit, received the bonus.
On Wednesday, Eskom published its 2017 financial results.
The results showed that Eskom’s profit dropped to R870 million loss in 2016/17 financial year versus R5.1 billion profit in the previous reporting period.
Eskom was given a qualified audit owing to irregularities and it now has 10% more debt than it did the previous year.
The company’s revenue increased by 7.9% to R177 billion, while there was an EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) of R38 billion representing an increase of 14.4%.
Eskom’s own generation cost decreased by 8.5% to R60 billion with total primary energy costs down by 2.3%.
Cost savings at the utility of R20 billion were achieved against a R17 billion target.