Income inequality rankles

OCCASIONALLY the news headlines make us all sit up, scratch our heads and perhaps wonder about the South Africa we are leaving to our children.

Earlier this week, news broke that Sibanye-Stillwater’s chief executive, Neal Froneman, walked away with a staggering pay package of R300 million for the financial year that ended in 2021.

It should be said that Froneman’s basic pay package is R12.4m, along with a R7.8m cash bonus. A whopping R264m came from shared proceeds of the mining company’s stock price.

Sibanye-Stillwater’s stock performance has been explosive as demand for minerals shot up during the Covid19 pandemic. For the year to date, the stock is up 10.12%.

Froneman’s generous pay package is not some outlier, but has become the general rule across South African industry, from mining to banking.

Just the other day, Absa’s fired chief executive Daniel Mminele was paid just over R30m after being in the job for slightly more than a year.

Mineworkers who risk their lives to dig up and process the precious ore that enriches the likes of Froneman have also sat up and taken note of the company’s stellar results.

For close to 50 days the company’s workers have been on strike, demanding improved pay considering that the company made R33 billion during the last financial year. Instead, the lowest-paid workers have been offered an “improved” salary offer of R850 a month over the next three years.

The National Union of Mineworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union are demanding a R1 000 increase.

Too many companies in South Africa still see exploiting their workforce as a worthwhile exercise if it means “unlocking shareholder value”.

This happens in the context in which South Africa is, by all metrics, considered the most unequal society in the world.

Despite launching a relatively generous social welfare system, the ANC government continues to fail poor workers through its inaction on tackling income inequality.

Our collective failure to act will see an increase in violent strikes from the underpaid, overworked and exploited.