Johannesburg - Vincent Raseroka, an executive director in SAA Technical, was the highest-paid executive in the Transnet group last year, according to the 2003 annual report, which was released on Tuesday.
Raseroka was paid R8.8 million, which was significantly ahead of SAA chief Andre Viljoen, who received R6.3 million.
Both executives received considerably more than Transnet chief executive Mafika Mkwanazi, who received R3.6 million in guaranteed remuneration for 2003.
But Mkwanazi will also receive a performance incentive bonus.
According to a note in the directors' report, the calculation of this bonus can only be finalised subject to the completion and approval of the audited annual financial statements.
It added: "The bonus is expected to be 70 percent of the group chief executive and group executive's remuneration package."
That SAA appears to enjoy more generous remuneration schemes than other divisions of Transnet is also apparent from a note to the financial statements, which reveals that SAA Pty has provided a R111 million guarantee for the funding of an employee share incentive scheme.
For several years Transnet's performance was dogged by the controversy and costs associated with its pension fund. The pension fund restructuring is now behind it, only to be replaced by a huge foreign exchange exposure.
Reflecting the swings and roundabout dimension to foreign exchange markets, the notes to the financial statements show a loss of R6.2 billion on derivatives.
The loss, which is described as a fair value adjustment and relates to instruments used to hedge against currency movements, has not been realised. In financial 2002 the group showed a fair value adjustment gain of R5 billion.
However, there was an actual realised forex loss of R1.4 billion during 2003, which compared with a gain of R1.3 billion in 2002.
Transnet continues to rely heavily on consultants. It paid out R509 million in managerial and technical consulting fees in 2003, which is a drop of 15 percent on the R601 million it paid in 2002.
For a group that is planning an R80 billion expansion programme, the cash flow statement looks extremely stressed.
At the end of financial 2002, Transnet had cash and cash equivalent resources of just over R7 billion. At the end of 2003 this was just under R1 billion.