The South African Revenue Service (Sars) noted that its commissioner Edward Kieswetter’s total remuneration for 2024 was R11.71 million.
As of the end of March 2024, Sars has collected a record gross amount of R2.155 trillion, year on-year.
His salary could be broken down as follows:
- A base salary of R7.79 million
- Performance bonuses of R3.63 million
- Allowances of R1.56 million
- Pension contributions of R1.3 million.
The average South African
Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) latest quarterly employment survey (QES) noted that the average salary in South Africa for 2024 was R26,791 a month.
This translates to around R321,492 a year.
The Commissioner’s R7.79 million salary is around R649,166 per month.
You could therefore say that Kieswetter earns more than 36 times the yearly salary of an average South African, taking...
The Commissioner earns more than the President
Kieswetter’s remuneration is almost three times that of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The president's annual salary for 2024 was R4.2 million, though it should be noted that he donates much of his salary to various charitable organisations.
Two more years on the job
In February, Ramaphosa extended Kieswetter’s tenure and said that the Commissioner needed to stay on in order to make sure there was an orderly transition.
Kieswetter was initially appointed in March 2019 for a five-year term that started in May 2019.
He agreed to stay on for an additional two more years.
Sars said that the decision was premised on the understanding that the extended term would allow the entity to further embed the strategic intent and transformation on which the organisation embarked in 2019.
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