7 August 2026
We analysed the pay inequality at 35 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and found that, on average, top managers earn about 14x as much as the lowest-paid employees.
The 35 SOEs we analysed were the ones we could find which reported their pay structures by salary band: unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, professionally qualified, senior management, and top management.
SOEs controversially pay extremely high executive salaries, much higher than the R4-million salary of the president.
Because a large portion of SOE revenue comes from sources other than Treasury, they don’t have to abide by Treasury guidelines on salary scales. SOEs also compete with the private sector for highly skilled executives and so negotiate salaries based on previous pay, experience, and market rates.
We found six entities with an above-average gap between lowest and highest employees. These are not the entities with the highest top salaries; they are those with the highest income inequality between employees.
The CEO at the SA Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates the aviation sector, earned R9.7-million on average in 2024/25. That’s 93x the average annual salary of the 102 workers in the lowest salary band, which was R104,000.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation’s CEO was paid R7.7-million, almost 3x what those in the next highest salary scale earned on average (R2.7-million), and 53x the average pay of the lowest salary band (R143k).
The vast majority of the entity’s 1,706 employees are semi-skilled and earned R240,000 on average.
At the Media Development and Diversity Agency, which has only 81 employees, the top three executives earned R2-million on average, and the 11 senior managers earned R1.1-million, while the lowest 33 employees earned R42,350 on average.
The MDDA receives levies from TV and radio broadcasters and funds community media projects and hosts workshops.
The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority’s CEO earned R7.1-million, double that of the entity’s ten senior managers (R3.36-million on average) and 27x that of the average pay in the lowest salary bracket.
The Water Research Commission, SA Maritime Safety Authority, and National Housing Finance Corporation also had lowest-to-highest pay ratios that exceeded the average.
Chart produced by The Outlier in partnership with GroundUp
