Why does the CEO of Pikitup earn more than President Cyril Ramaphosa?

The mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, has struggled to explain to parliamentarians why the CEOs of the city’s municipal companies earn more than President Cyril Ramaphosa. According to reports, the CEOs of the city’s 13 municipal companies earn a total annual salary package of up to nearly R5 million, despite widespread service delivery failures and infrastructure backlogs. President Cyril Ramaphosa earns R3.5 million per annum.

On Tuesday, parliament’s standing committee on public accounts demanded to know why these executives earn so much. “There are six City of Johannesburg Executives that earn more than there president, the head of City Power, the CEO of Johannesburg Roads Agency, the Pikitiup Managing Director, the CEO of Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), the CEO of Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), Johannesburg City Theatres and Johannesburg Water. “Whoever is running Pikitiup is earning more than the president of South Africa…if my understanding is correct, Pikitup collects garbage around Johannesburg, and that person who runs Pikitup earns more,” said MK Party MP Thalente Khubeka.

Initially, Morero struggled to explain. He told the committee that his delegation would submit a report at a later stage. “We will give a full response, accommodating and giving a reflection of every CEO appointed… maybe some benchmarking would have been done before they arrived at those decisions, so let’s give you a comprehensive report.

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Otherwise, at this stage, I will find myself thumb sucking.” But Scopa chairperson, Songezo Zibi, challenged Morero. “This should not be complicated, Mr mayor and city manager, one of you should know what criteria is used to do the job grading, the scope of the job, the size of the balance sheet, surely? Surely you know those things?” City manager Floyd Brink explained that the salaries were justified because of “the scope and the complexity of their jobs”. “They have got a completely different system in terms of their own benchmarking and the scales of their salaries.

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