The CEO of a JSE-listed company earned R1,784 billion in 2025. Fair or Foul?

Study of JSE companies raises red flag. Will Companies Act Amendments make a difference?

The very rich are indeed getting richer, and the gap between rich and poor is widening, according to the latest JSE Top 40 CEO Remuneration Report. 

Male CEOs earn significantly more than female CEOs, and the CEO to worker salary ratio is 500 to 1 – significantly more than in other developing countries (Between 150 and 300 in India, and between 80 and 150 in Brazil), the report says. 

JSE top 40 CEOs were paid a total of R 6,7 billion in 2025, a figure that includes the CEO salaries of companies headquartered overseas. The top five earners on the list are all non-South African CEOs, with Michel Doukeris (Anheuser-Busch InBev) topping the list (R1,784 billion) followed by Naspers /Prosus CEO Fabricio Bloisi (R1,022 billion).  The top South African earner on the list was Kenny Fihla, whose R148 million total remuneration at Absa Group included a significant 'buyout' to compensate him for incentives forfeited when he resigned from Standard Bank in early 2025. Excluding these costs, his pro-rata salary for the half-year was significantly less – just over R6 million.

A notable report finding is that there is not a strong correlation between the quantum of executive remuneration and company profitability. “What we conclude then is that high compensation does not necessarily lead to high profits,” the report states in its introduction. “Because this data looks over ten years, we know that over the longer term it is simply not true that if we pay a CEO a lot it will lead to profits.”

“This report finds a very weak pay to profit correlation – meaning that, for this sample at least, paying a CEO an enormous remuneration package does not necessarily mean that company is making huge amount of profit.”

Variation in CEO remuneration levels was largely influenced by a range of other factors including “board discretion, industry norms, individual contract terms, and the structure and timing of long-term incentive (LTI) awards,” the report says.

“In an extremely unequal society like South Africa, we need to shift our focus from 'what is the global price of a CEO?' to 'what is fair in our context?' We’re certainly not saying CEOs shouldn’t be compensated well – but we need to rethink how compensation is structured, and what exactly we are rewarding.”

The latest CEO Remuneration Report coincides with news of amendments to the Companies Act, reported this week in BusinessTech. The amendments took effect last week, although they were originally signed into law in 2024, according to the report.

“The most significant changes relate to how companies disclose and approve executive remuneration.”

“Public and state-owned companies are now legally required to prepare forward-looking remuneration policies that must be approved by shareholders through an ordinary resolution at annual general meetings,” the BusinessTech report says. 

Prominent labour lawyer Michael Bagraim said while CEO salary levels played a role in attracting the top expertise, employers should be mindful of creating an obscene gap between the top earners and non-executive staff. “We are competing in a worldwide market and many of our highly paid CEO’s are able to shop around world wide to see where they can get the best salary and conditions of employment.” 

“We do however need to understand that the GINI coefficient in South Africa is stark and employers need to take into account the impact of this.” 

“It would look extremely bad for employers to decry decent increases to the staff if they are overpaying the executive management,” Bagraim said.