The Eskom executive whose salary increased by 90% in a year and was paid more than CEO Dan Marokane

Eskom CFO Calib Cassim’s pay package grew by 90.78% to R13.52 million in the 2026 financial year, as the finance chief readies for his retirement. 

This pay package means that Cassim earned more than Eskom CEO Dan Marokane, who received R12.18 million in the 2026 financial year. 

Both Cassim and Marokane have been instrumental in Eskom’s operational and financial recovery over the past two years. 

Their remuneration packages were revealed in Eskom’s 2026 annual report, which detailed a utility that is mounting a comeback. 

Eskom reported a R30.35 billion profit for the 2026 financial year and a net cash balance of R125 billion. This is vastly improved from prior years. 

Much of this improved financial performance came from reduced load-shedding, higher electricity tariffs, and lower diesel spending to fire up emergency power stations. 

The improved operational and financial performance of Eskom has not yet translated into major pay increases for its executives. 

This is because they have not yet achieved any of the targets required to unlock their long-term bonuses, which, for Marokane, will be R11.4 million in the next financial year. 

However, Cassim’s remuneration surged in the 2026 financial year because of contributions to his pension fund, which is classified under “other payments” by Eskom. 

As such, in this segment of his package, Cassim was paid R5.15 million, compared with Marokane’s R142,000. 

Eskom said this was driven by an extraordinary R4.8 million payment by the utility to Cassim’s pension. 

This payment was made to boost Cassim’s retirement benefits and compensate for the pensionable service he lost during his previous fixed-term contract from 2018 to 2023. 

In effect, Eskom added three years and two months of pensionable service to Cassim’s 2026 pay cheque, boosting his remuneration. 

This boosted Cassim’s remuneration to R13.52 million, representing a 90% year-on-year increase. Of this, R6.4 million was his guaranteed salary. 

The table below provides a breakdown of Cassim’s remuneration package for the 2026 financial year. 

Remuneration Component	Value
Salary	R6,360,000
Short-term Bonus (STI)	R2,005,000
Other Payments	R5,150,000
Long-term Bonus (LTI)	R0
Total Remuneration	R13 515 000

End of a 24-year career

In presenting their results for the 2026 financial year, Eskom also revealed that Cassim will retire in the coming year. 

This will bring to an end his 24-year career at Eskom, which has included both the highs of being the world’s best utility and the lows of the worst year of load shedding in 2023. 

Cassim first joined Eskom as a chief advisor in the financial planning and regulation team in 2002, where he learned about the utility’s operations first-hand. 

Prior to this, he graduated from the University of Natal with a Bachelor of Commerce and completed a Bachelor of Accounting Sciences from the University of South Africa. 

Cassim qualified as a chartered accountant and initially worked as a financial manager at Standard Bank’s credit card division. 

Here, he gained experience in commercial banking and was exposed to corporate finance, balance sheet analysis, and planning. 

Cassim quickly climbed the ranks in Eskom’s financial department, becoming general manager for financial planning and economic regulation within a couple of years. 

In this role, he became the main strategist behind Eskom’s electricity tariff applications to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. 

This required Cassim to balance the need to ramp up investment in new generation capacity against South Africans’ ability to pay. 

However, at this time, Eskom began experiencing significant challenges with load-shedding implemented in 2007 and increased leadership instability. 

This continued during the Zuma administration, with Eskom becoming a key target of state capture, particularly its finance department. 

In times of crisis, the opportunities to rise the ranks come quickly to those willing to take responsibility. Cassim was one of those and was appointed CFO in 2017. 

Cassim had a different mandate from that of a typical CFO. He was responsible for halting dodgy contracts and ending state capture, while ensuring Eskom’s financial sustainability. 

Apart from the Eskom CEO, this was seen as the most difficult job in the country. Eskom was weighed down by a debt burden of R300 billion and declining electricity sales. 

Cassim also had to navigate debt negotiations with the state and pressure to make sure Eskom could be unbundled in an orderly fashion. 

Things only got harder when Cassim was thrust into the CEO role in 2023 after Andre de Ruyter’s sudden resignation. 

This lasted a year, after which he was replaced by current CEO Marokane, with whom Cassim has led the turnaround of Eskom. 

Speaking about his retirement, Cassim said he looks forward to watching Eskom succeed from the sidelines.