How much Eskom’s CEO gets paid

Eskom released its annual financial results for the year ended 31 March 2025, which revealed that CEO Dan Marokane received a pay package of over R14 million.

Eskom’s latest financial results, released on Tuesday, 30 September, revealed that the utility swung back into profit for the first time in eight years.

The SOE recorded a profit of R16.05 billion for its 2025 financial year, much higher than the previous year’s loss of R55.02 billion.

Eskom’s revenue grew by 15% to R340.9 billion, while its profit for the year grew by 129% to R16.05 billion. The utility also reported a 561% rise in its operating profit, which increased to R67.27 billion.

Notably, the company has not reported a profit since its 2017 financial year, marking a significant turnaround in its performance.

In its results presentation, Eskom praised its new CEO, Dan Marokane, for the turnaround. Marokane was appointed Eskom’s CEO in March 2024, following a prolonged period of quick leadership turnovers at the utility.

Once recognised as one of the best companies in South Africa, Eskom only had three CEOs between 1985 and 2007.

However, in the 17 years that followed, Eskom has had 15 EOs, interim CEOs, and acting CEOs. The utility’s last permanent CEO before Marokane, Andre de Ruyter, took over as the company’s CEO in 2020.

However, on 14 December 2022, de Ruyter surprised South Africans by announcing his resignation after three years at the helm.

De Ruyter described this role as bruising, highly pressured, and extremely complex. “I would have liked to be seen as the knight on the white horse coming in and fixing all the problems. Clearly, this is impossible.”

By the time Marokane took over the role, Eskom was in severe operational and financial trouble, and customers were paying the price.

Marokane takes over a broken Eskom

In 2023, the country experienced a record 205 days of load-shedding as its coal-fired plants regularly broke down, and it ran out of money to buy the diesel needed to supplement its capacity.

To keep the utility afloat, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced in February 2023 that the National Treasury would provide R254 billion in debt relief over the next three years.

Adding to the challenge, Marokane also inherited R396.3 billion in debt obligations, with Eskom’s interest bill and loan repayments jumping to R81 billion in 2023.

Despite these challenges, he managed to steer the utility back towards profitability and reduced load-shedding.

The utility’s finances were boosted by a combination of higher income and cost-cutting efforts, with its primary energy costs down 14% to R150.2 billion compared to 2024.

During the financial year, Eskom’s sales volumes increased 3.5% to 189.7 TWh, and the utility benefited from a standard tariff increase of 12.74%.

The company also saw a significant boost from the South African Revenue Service’s R9.2 billion fuel levy rebate.

Eskom also partially attributed its improved performance to the government support it received through debt relief, which significantly boosted the utility’s liquidity.

Since the implementation of the Eskom Debt Relief Act in 2023, Eskom has received R140 billion in support, R64 billion of which fell into the 2025 financial year.

The utility said the R64 billion of debt relief support it received in its 2025 financial year allowed it to redirect cash from operations to capital expenditure.

Dan Marokane’s salary package at Eskom

Eskom announced that it paid Marokane R11.73 million in the 2025 financial year. Marokane’s total remuneration included a basic salary of R9 million, short-term incentives (STI) worth R765,000 and other payments of R1.96 million.

In addition, he was also awarded a R2.5 million STI payout for the 2025 financial year. This was not included in Eskom’s remuneration report, as it is still awaiting shareholder approval.

This bonus puts Marokane’s total pay package over the R14 million line for the year. The table below shows how much Eskom paid its executive directors and group executives over the last financial year.