Maroga departed with fat payslips

Johannesburg - Former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga took home more than R4.7m for seven months' work last year before he left the state utility under a cloud, according to its annual report.

Maroga's salary earnings from the end of March, the start of the financial year, to October, when he left, came to R3.5m. But his remuneration also included a short-term bonus of R1.266m paid in December 2009.

This was a deferred incentive award for Eskom having achieved a savings target of R22bn, according to the report tabled in parliament this week.

In 2008, Maroga earned R4.9m and also benefited from a housing loan of just over R3m.

Maroga left Eskom in October 2009 after he allegedly tendered his resignation following a fallout with then chairperson Bobby Godsell.

He subsequently denied that he had quit, but the company accepted what it interpreted as a verbal resignation and terminated his contract, citing "poor performance".

He is suing Eskom for R85m in compensation for "benefits due to him in terms of the contract" in the High Court in Johannesburg. The court is yet to deliver a ruling.

The annual report reflects that Maroga's successor as CEO, Brian Dames, earned R5.7m last year when he was the chief officer of Eskom's generation business. Erica Johnson, the head of the company's consumer network business, took home R4.6m.

In both cases the pay packages amounted to nearly double their 2008 earnings, and included bonuses totalling about R2m.

 - Sapa