I get what I'm entitled to - acting Prasa CEO
27 February 2017
Pretoria - Prasa acting group CEO Collins Letsoalo on Monday rejected as malicious a Sunday Times report that he increased his salary by 350%.
“This statement is unfair and it has affected my family and it seeks to undermine the work I have done. There is nothing that is going to deter me to fight corruption,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
The paper reported on Sunday that in October, he increased his salary from R1.7m to R5.9m per annum. He was appointed in July 2016.
Letsoalo said he would not have accepted his appointment had he been offered R1.7m, which he earned as Road Traffic Management Corporation CEO.
"I have 70 000 employees and five CEOs. You want to say I must still get paid that money? If they sent me that letter in the agreement I would have said 'no'. There is no way I was going to do so much work for nothing. What I am entitled to I will get."
'Media assault'
He claimed the report was part of a "media assault" and the first of three articles from an "unholy alliance" aimed at destabilising Prasa and his administration. Processes had to be followed to increase one's salary, he said.
Letsoalo read out his letter of appointment letter from Passenger Rail Agency of SA general manager Bongani Nkomo. It stated that the company's package for group acting CEOs amounted to R5.9m a year.
He told journalists he was given a salary with benefits, which included a car allowance. He denied that had demanded an unlimited cellphone package, since he already had one and was paying for it himself.
According to his appointment agreement he would receive a benefit of a company car, which his predecessors, including former CEO Lucky Montana, had used.
The Sunday Times reported that Letsoalo pressured acting group executive for human capital Bhekani Khumalo for the 350% increase. After Khumalo declined to meet his demands, Letsoalo replaced him with another employee.
"This story that Khumalo is dismissed: I don't know where it is coming from. The man is not dismissed at all."
