The South African broadcasting veteran who received a R380-million payday

Steve Pacak began his career with Naspers at M-Net in 1988, and 37 years later, he sold 500,000 Prosus shares worth around R380 million.

Naspers, where Pacak currently serves as a non-executive board member, is the majority owner of Prosus. In February 2025, the company informed stakeholders that Pacak had sold thousands of Prosus shares in two tranches.

Pacak sold 350,000 Prosus shares on Monday, 10 February 2025, at an average volume-weighted value of €39.75 (then R761) per share.

That same day, he sold another 150,000 Prosus shares at an average price of €39.66 (then R759) per share. The total was an estimated R380.2 million before taxes.

Before that, Pacak and fellow director Mark Sorour sold a combined R165 million in shares between June 2022 and February 2023.

Little is known about Pacak’s early life, besides that he was a pupil of St. Dominic’s College in Welkom.

Pacak visited the school to attend the opening of its new media centre in November 2018, to which he donated a variety of books and resource material.

“Mr Pacak visited our College a couple of years ago and committed to providing books for the Media Centre, on condition that the College develop a functional Media Centre with effective controls to ensure that the resources would be accessible to pupils for years to come,” the school said.

After his schooling, he completed a Bachelor of Accounting degree at the University of the Witwatersrand and is a qualified chartered accountant.

He joined Naspers in 1988 when he served as group financial manager at M-Net.

M-Net, which launched in 1986, was South Africa’s first pay-TV channel, and it helped to significantly transform the country’s media landscape.

While group financial manager, Pacak was responsible for overseeing the channel’s financial operations during a period of expansion and innovation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

His leadership in M-Net’s financial space contributed to the pay-TV channel’s growth and integration into the MultiChoice and MIH Holdings structures.

After his time at M-Net, Pacak held various executive roles within the Naspers-owned MIH group. He was MIH’s chief financial officer from November 1993 to January 1998.

His earlier contributions at M-Net paved the way for his long-standing leadership within the Naspers group.

Settling in at Naspers

Pacak has held various executive positions within the Naspers group, including being appointed as an executive director in 1998.

Specifically, Pacak was appointed as the Naspers Group’s chief financial officer in 1998.

However, this wasn’t without a brief hiatus from the role in 2009. According to Naspers, he was reappointed to the board as financial director on 1 April 2009, after a three-month sabbatical.

From April 2009, he continued to serve until June 2014, after which he shifted to a non-executive director of Naspers — a position he still holds today.

However, he was first appointed an alternate director on 1 July 2014, before resigning as an alternate director and being appointed a non-executive director from 15 January 2015.

Pacak also served as chair of Naspers’ audit committee, which is tasked with supporting the board in assessing the integrity of the group’s financial reporting.

It comprises mainly of independent non-executive directors.

Pacak took over the role of chair of the committee when former chair Don Eriksson retired in April 2021.

“The board considers Steve to be independent of mind and judgement in his conduct as chair of the committee,” says Naspers.

In addition to his role at Naspers, Pacak is an independent non-executive director at Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world.

Pacak is also a director of Media24, MIH B.V, MIH (Mauritius) Limited, MIH Holdings, MultiChoice South Africa Holdings, and other companies within the Naspers group.