By Khulile Thwala
The Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) awarded a performance bonus of E17 121 233 to its employees in the year ended March 2022.
This is contained in the company’s annual report for the year 2021/22. This was E3 772 362 less than the bonus awarded to the company’s staff in 2021 which was E20 893 595.
The company further spent about E5 million on travelling and disbursement expenses and close to E15 million on staff training and welfare.
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The company has 733 permanent employees and 94 casual or temporary employees. This comes against the backdrop of EEC’s over-recovery of E555 million from consumers which was discovered when the regulatory authority Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) was analysing EEC’s tariff increase application.
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According to the Authority, the company had understated some costs or tried to pass on some costs which in terms of the law should have not been passed on to customers.
The EEC further reported that through its Corporate Social Investment (CSI), part of the support made by the company was a significant amount contributed towards the government’s initiative for economic recovery post-civil unrest 2021.
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“CSI remains very important to EEC, and to this end, we spend around E2 million in financial support for different organisations to meet their objectives for a good cause. Some of these organisations include NGOs that assist communities with health-related issues (such as hospices). We have also supported Rotary clubs and community policing,” stated the EEC Managing Director Ernest Mkhonta.