Eskom has paid out bonuses of R4.2 billion to its employees despite significant financial woes at the company. This is double the amount paid in 2016.

Last week Eskom unveiled its latest financial results, which showed that the group’s profit slumped from R5.1 billion last year to R888 million for the 2016/17 financial year.

The power utility’s generational unit, known as the Eskom Company, made a loss of R870 million in the last financial year.

A big problem for the power producer was the ongoing financial irregularities, which has resulted in a qualified audit.

Eskom’s irregular expenditure alone has reached R2.996 billion on the last financial year, which was a result of disreputable actions and tenders.

The company acted as if these problems did not exist, and decided to reward its staff with huge bonuses for their performance.

The City Press reported that Eskom “still managed to pay each employee an average bonus of R88,000”, despite the fact that Eskom incurred massive losses in its last financial year.

Another issue which made headlines is the R8.9 million paycheck – which included a R2.1 million bonus – to former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe who only served as the chief executive for 8 months.

Even the employees in the purchasing department, which was responsible for the qualified audit, received bonuses.

“The commercial division got 75% of their bonus – in spite of damning reports by Treasury, the audit firms PwC and Dentons and the Public Protector,” the City Press said.