CEO and CFO get shares valued at R24 million ...
Last year, shareholders approved both the remuneration policy and its implementation with 96% support, while non-executive directors’ fees received 99.6% approval. Picture: X/@tndaba
Nine of Telkom’s top executives have scored R57 million in shares under its forfeitable plan.
All the shares are subject to vesting against various performance conditions until the 2029 financial year.
It is rather unusual for 100% of shares awarded to vest in a single year. Typically, these would vest over a three- or five-year basis, based on targets set by the board.
Telkom Exec’s payday
Group CEO Serame Taukobong received the most, valued at R16.5 million, with the CFO receiving shares worth R7.6 million.
The awards extend to various executives in its business including the CEOs of its three largest divisions: Telkom Consumer, Openserve and BCX (Hasain Motlekar is acting CEO).
| Participant | Role | Shares | Value |
| Serame Taukobong | Group CEO | 264 318 | R16.5m |
| Nonkululeko Dlamini | Group CFO | 122 353 | R7.6m |
| Beauty Apleni | CEO: Openserve | 104 365 | R6.5m |
| Melody Lekota | Chief HR Officer | 83 082 | R5.2m |
| Lunga Siyo | CEO: Telkom Consumer and Small Business | 111 173 | R6.9m |
| Sello Mmakau | Group chief digital officer | 79 960 | R4.9m |
| Mpho McNamee | Chief of corporate affairs | 75 636 | R4.7m |
| Hasnain Motlekar | Acting CEO: BCX | 38 851 | R2.4m |
| Ephenia Motlhamme | Company secretary | 32 694 | R2m |
| TOTAL | 912 432 | R56.9m |
Under the group’s long-term performance plan, it has key weightings where it measures against headline earnings per share (Heps) growth, total shareholder return (both 30% of the measure), along with return on invested capital (ROIC) at 25% and various environmental, sustainability and governance metrics, which comprise 15% of the yardstick.
Telkom says the total deemed value of these awards “was calculated by multiplying each participant’s guaranteed pay by a target weighting, expressed as a percentage that varies in accordance with the participant’s employee level in the company.
“This total deemed value of the award is then divided by the volume average share price (VWAP) of a Telkom share trading on the JSE after the Telkom Board meeting. This then amounts to the number of share awards allocated to each participant.”
Telkom’s overall remuneration
Telkom has yet to disclose the overall remuneration of its executive directors or prescribed officers (comprising most of the members in the table above) for the FY26 financial year.
This will be made available in its integrated report, to be published towards the end of July.
At the end of the FY2025, Taubokong received remuneration totalling R33.29 million, an increase of nearly 270% on the prior year. The bulk of this was long-term incentives (LTI), which comprised R13.4 million plus a short-term incentive (STI) of R10 million.
Dlamini received remuneration last year of practically R13 million, which was roughly evenly split between guaranteed pay (R6.8 million) and short-term incentives (R6.1 million).
Remuneration committee’s focus
Despite being a state-owned company, the group has enjoyed strong support for its remuneration in what has historically been non-binding votes on both the policy and remuneration.
Last year, it achieved support of 96% on both the policy and implementation, plus a 99.6% approval when it comes to non-executive directors’ fees.
The group’s Remuneration Committee says its focus remains to:
- Drive a high-performance culture by monitoring the implementation of the retention strategy and [remuneration] scheme;
- Improve remuneration decisions, with ESG metrics or performance conditions included in the STI and LTI scheme rules;
- Review the remuneration policy to ensure it aligns with the Companies Amendment Act and is fit for purpose to attract and retain talent; and
- Balance the remuneration mix for executive directors and group prescribed officers to continuously align their interests with those of shareholders.
At the end of last year (31 April), Taubokong had outstanding, unvested shares of nearly one million, which at the current share price equates to R57 million.
The group has a market value of R30 billion, and its share price is flat year-to-date. Shares are up 24% over the past year.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
