Vodacom Group’s chief financial officer, Raisibe Morathi, has taken home more than R202 million in pre-tax remuneration over the six years she has been in the role. At an average of R102 160 per day, the figure is large enough to raise eyebrows among shareholders, analysts and anyone who watches executive pay in South Africa.
Morathi joined Vodacom on 1 November 2020 after a long career in banking and finance. The company’s integrated reports show that her total pre-tax package grew from R14.0 million in the 2021 financial year, a year in which she worked only five months, to R32.5 million in the 2025 financial year. The biggest jump came in the 2026 financial year, when long-term performance shares vested, pushing her total pre-tax remuneration to R202.278 million for the whole period.
How the pay is built
Vodacom breaks the CFO’s remuneration into four parts: a guaranteed package, benefits, short-term incentives (STI) and long-term incentives (LTI). The guaranteed package is the base salary that is paid regardless of performance. In 2026 the guaranteed amount was R11.9 million. The short-term incentive, a cash bonus linked to annual results, was R12.4 million. The long-term incentive, which is paid when performance targets over several years are met, contributed R41.4 million after the awards made in June 2023 finally vested.
The company said the LTI payment reflected the final vesting percentage for those awards, noting that the three-year performance period ended on 31 March 2026. Vodacom reported that the overall achievement against its long-term incentive targets was 145.8%, up from 73.1% in the previous year. In other words, the company met more than one and a half times the performance criteria that trigger the LTI payout.
Vodacom’s statements also explain why the pay has risen. The firm said the first full-year increase of 7.5% was intended to keep the CFO’s salary competitive in a market where female executives are scarce. Subsequent adjustments were justified by “annual benchmarks given the heightened competition for technology-related skills and talent”. The company frames the higher pay as a tool to attract and retain senior talent, especially women, in a sector where the pool of qualified leaders is limited.
For a small-to-medium enterprise owner, the headline number matters because it sits on the same profit and loss sheet that determines dividend payouts, reinvestment capacity and the cost of capital. When a large public company allocates a sizeable portion of its earnings to executive pay, it can affect the amount of cash returned to shareholders. In Vodacom’s case, the company’s net profit after tax for the 2026 financial year was R22 billion. Morathi’s total remuneration of roughly R30 million that year represents about 0.14% of profit, a small slice in absolute terms, but a figure that can be used by analysts to assess the company’s cost structure.
The story also touches on a broader trend in South Africa: the push for gender diversity at board level and in senior management. Vodacom’s justification for a higher salary, to remain competitive for female talent, reflects a policy environment where companies are under pressure to improve gender representation. The remuneration data therefore serves as a concrete example of how that pressure translates into pay decisions.
From a regulatory perspective, executive remuneration in listed companies is disclosed in integrated reports and must meet the standards set by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Companies Act. Vodacom’s figures are therefore publicly verified, but the company’s narrative about “attracting and retaining female talent” is a claim that has not been independently measured. Stakeholders can only assess whether the higher pay has delivered the intended talent outcomes by looking at turnover data, which the company does not disclose.
For entrepreneurs and SME owners, the key takeaway is not to copy the pay scale but to understand the forces behind it. Competitive salaries, performance-linked bonuses and long-term equity awards are tools that larger firms use to lock in scarce expertise. Smaller businesses may not have the cash to match such packages, but they can still apply the principle of linking pay to measurable outcomes, whether through profit-sharing, modest equity stakes or clear bonus criteria.
In short, Raisibe Morathi’s remuneration story is a reminder that talent, especially at the senior level, comes at a price. It also shows how a company can use pay as a lever for broader policy goals, such as gender diversity. For anyone watching Vodacom’s share price, dividend policy or corporate governance, the numbers are a concrete data point in the ongoing debate about executive pay in South Africa.
