Mthobisi Nozulela|Published
South Africa’s highest-paid corporate leaders are seeing their earnings climb, but it is bonuses and long-term incentive awards, rather than guaranteed pay, that are doing much of the heavy lifting.
Chief executive officers at the JSE’s 200 largest listed companies received median total remuneration of R23.2 million in the most recent financial year, equivalent to about R1.93 million a month. This represented a 9% increase on the previous year.
The figures are contained in PwC’s latest Directors Remuneration and Trends report, which examined executive pay across the companies for the financial year to February 2026.
The report found that median long-term incentive outcomes for CEOs increased by 67%, while short-term incentives rose by 42%.
By comparison, median total guaranteed pay for CEOs increased by 6% to R8.814 million.
Chief financial officers (CFOs) also recorded higher earnings, with median total remuneration rising by 7% to R13.489 million. Their long-term incentive outcomes increased by 54%, while short-term incentives rose by 39%. Median total guaranteed pay for CFOs grew by just 1% to R5.580 million.
PwC attributed the higher remuneration outcomes to stronger company performance and favourable vesting of incentive awards.
“The real story is not simply that executive pay has increased, but what is driving it. The increase has come mainly through incentives, particularly long-term incentives, rather than guaranteed pay,” said Makhosazana Mabaso, PwC Reward Partner.
“For boards, the focus now is on making sure reward remains connected to performance and sustainable value creation, while balancing the expectations of executives, employees and shareholders,” she said.
Shareholders push back less on executive pay
The rise in executive remuneration coincided with stronger shareholder support for companies’ remuneration reports, according to PwC.
Support for remuneration implementation reports increased from 83.8% in 2025 to 89.6% in 2026. Meanwhile, the proportion of reports attracting opposition from more than half of shareholders fell from 5.4% to 0.6%.
No remuneration policy resolutions received opposition of more than 50% in 2026, compared with 1.2% in 2025.
However, some pay decisions remain contentious. PwC highlighted scrutiny of substantial sign-on awards that lack performance conditions, as well as large long-term incentive grants that are not adequately justified.
About 9.6% of remuneration policy resolutions and 9.8% of implementation report resolutions received shareholder support of between 50% and 75%.
The findings come amid changes to South Africa’s corporate governance framework. Amendments to the Companies Act relating to remuneration took effect on 22 May 2026, strengthening requirements around pay transparency and shareholder accountability.
PwC Reward Partner Leila Ebrahimi said greater transparency could help companies make better-informed remuneration decisions.
“Better pay data enables organisations to identify patterns, uncover potential gaps and make more informed remuneration decisions,” Ebrahimi said.
Women remain scarce in the executive ranks
Despite the substantial sums involved, women remain underrepresented in the top executive positions at South Africa’s largest listed companies.
Women account for 10% of CEOs and 25% of CFOs across the JSE Top 200 companies analysed in the report.
The figures also show differences in guaranteed remuneration between male and female executives. The median total guaranteed pay gap between male and female CEOs stood at 7% in 2026, while male CFOs received median total guaranteed pay that was 2% higher than that of their female counterparts.
Boardroom remuneration also increased during the reporting period. Median fees for non-executive board members rose by 7.7%, while chairperson fees increased by 6.5%.
Median proposed annual fees stood at R1.754 million for chairpersons, R1.509 million for deputy chairpersons, R1.193 million for lead independent directors and R518,000 for board members.