RSSC, UBOMBO SUGAR GIVE OUT E1BN SALARIES

SIMUNYE –  The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC) and Ubombo Sugar in the eastern part of Eswatini, seem to be ploughing back to their workforce through payment of fairly good salaries and wages.

In its 2018 annual report, the RSSC, whose majority shareholders are all Eswatini nationals through their investment company Tibiyo TakaNgwane, reported that it generated a profit of E300 million but spent E670.1 million on salaries and wages.

On the other hand, Ubombo Sugar paid E408 million in salaries, wages and benefits to its employees and the company declared that it actively monitored remuneration against local and international benchmarks, with the lowest paid employee earning 203 per cent of Eswatini’s sectoral minimum wage.
The two companies could be said to have paid E1.078 billion to their workers in salaries and wages.

RSSC shareholders are Tibiyo Takangwane (51 per cent), RCL Foods (29 per cent), Nigerian Government (10 per cent), Eswatini Government (6.5 per cent) and some individuals holding least minority shares of 1.3 per cent.
It employs a total of 4 000 workers, including seasonal and casual employees while Ubombo Sugar has 2 600 under its employ, including seasonal workers.

salaries, wages, benefits

With a budget of E670 million per year on salaries, wages and benefits, the RSSC can afford to pay a same rate of E13 958 per month to all its 4 000 workers while Ubombo Sugar can pay  E13 076 to all of its 2 600 workers on a monthly basis.
Both companies make combined total revenue of E6.062 billion (RSSC – E2.962 billion + E3.1 billion for Ubombo Sugar). It must be mentioned that the E6 billion is just a turnover.

A company turnover is the net sales generated by a business and accountants say the turnover and profit are essentially the beginning and ending points of the income statement.
On top of the salaries, the RSSC paid E80 million in taxes to the government. Besides the salaries and wages paid out to the workers on an annual basis, the company spent E27.3 million on staff development, which took into account training and empowerment.
It further released E27.1 million for its healthcare services within the three compounds – Lusoti, Ngomane and Mhlume. RSSC also mentioned in its report that it provided housing to 22 000 people.

Regarding the Ubombo Sugar, it reported that it contributed six per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and released E228 million for indirect tax contributions.

It further set aside E8.3 million for staff development and E3.08 million was released to support community investments and E47 million was invested in a shared value project at St. Phillips, through which the company, community and government came together to develop a 450 hectare sugar cane farm.
The Big Bend-based company also paid E1 billion to Eswatini suppliers and jobs created by the company were estimated to have impacted 15 000 livelihoods.That was based on an average household size of 4.7 people in Eswatini.

total cost for rewards

Illovo Sugar Africa has a 60 per cent share in Ubombo Sugar Limited, with the balance of shares held on behalf of the Eswatini nation by Tibiyo Taka Ngwane (Tibiyo).
It could not be established how much Tibiyo TakaNgwane profited from Ubombo Sugar but Illovo, at some point, reported that the Big Bend-based company contributed four per cent to its E1.65 billion profit.

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