Everyone is talking about the R1,8-million a month salary, but Carlos Alberto Parreira, the new Bafana Bafana coach, will be paid R3-million a month - with R1,2-million going in tax to the South African Revenue Service (Sars).
Reluctantly announcing Parreira's pay package to parliament this week, the South African Football Association (Safa) confirmed it would pay Parreira's taxes - meaning that the salary package for the 1994 World Cup winning coach will amount to R36-million a year.
Parreira will bank R1,8-million a month, but his pay slip will show a monthly salary of R3-million.
Nina Keyser, a senior associate at law firm Webber Wentzel Bowens, said Safa will pay tax of R1,2-million a month on Parreira's salary package.
Adrian Lackay, the spokesperson for Sars, said the rate of tax deducted would be 40 percent for someone in Parreira's income bracket.
"Whether he is resident here or in Brazil, we would regard him as an employee of Safa," he said.
Cosatu's secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi was scathing about the salary: "It shows the immorality of the capitalist system itself, which tolerates individuals who rake in so much money in the face of poverty and deprivation."
Jody Kollapen, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission said that, in general, many South Africans got "obscene salaries" while at the same time the country was grappling with unemployment which stood at 40 percent and and a situation in which millions survived on less than R5 a day.
"While market forces dictate what CEOs and parastatal bosses are paid, one has to wonder about the message getting out. It makes poor people waiting for the benefits of democracy more cynical," he said.
"When such obscene deals are signed, what if after six months we don't like him, which has happened with several coaches before? Then we would have to pay him more than R40-million," Kollapen said.
Sipho Mthathi, the secretary-general of the Treatment Action Campaign, said it was distasteful that in a country with so much inequality, people such as Parreira and chief executives in the private sector should be paid millions.
"In a country with so many problems, we have nothing but condemnation for such salaries while ordinary workers are getting ripped off," she said.
Since the news broke on Monday, critics have questioned the millions paid to a man who failed to lead what many consider one of the best ever Brazilian teams to 2006 World Cup glory.