Parliament should pass a legislation to regulate executive remuneration after the Brian Molefe saga
24 May 2017
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the decision by the Parliament’s Public Enterprises Committee to institute an urgent enquiry into the reappointment of Brian Molefe as CEO of Eskom. We welcome this probe and hope that it will be wide-ranging, transparent and swift; so as to spare the country any more humiliation and also to avert any potential instability of a strategic state institution like Eskom.
The Brian Molefe saga cannot be resolved without government looking at the culture of exorbitant remuneration for company executives both in the public and private sectors.COSATU does not accept this argument of the so-called law of supply and demand or the invincible hand that is used to justify or explain away executive remuneration. It has been argued that since there is dearth of skills and high demand for managers these managers should be paid way more than ordinary workers.
This is unacceptable because even if their remuneration were to be linked to performance the productivity is due to workers on the floor and not only on the CEO. Therefore, there is no explanation on why salaries of executives are high compared to ordinary workers on the shop floor.
We commend the African National Congress for providing leadership this time around and learning from the SASSA and SABC failures .The ANC needs to respect the mandate of the electorate by ensuring that no government department, political principal or state institution is allowed to act inappropriately without consequences. The centre should be seen to be holding at all times for ANC to be able to stop the judicial takeover of the country.