State salaries are under fresh scrutiny as budget pressures mount and government debt soars – but the pay at state-owned enterprises is particularly staggering. The Development Bank of South Africa CEO tops the list, earning R15.5-million a year, nearly R1.3-million a month. The next highest earners are Transnet’s CEO at R8.5-million a year, closely followed by South African Revenue Services’ CEO at R8.2-million.

We’ve compiled the remuneration packages of the 122 state-owned enterprises CEOs using responses from 18 government ministers to parliamentary questions. The electricity and energy minister’s response was incomplete due to a broken link, so Eskom’s financials were used to estimate its CEO’s pay.

The top 15 earners all take home R6-million a year or more – not including performance bonuses. None of the 122 CEOs earns less than R1-million a year.