'Quite simply, our best people will choose other places to work'

Laurie Dippenaar said the plan - which would affect " a large number" of staff at FirstRand, where he is chairman - was "impractical" and would not work in his company.

"If we promote someone and they've got a greater responsibility, the scope of their work is far greater, they have more people that they are managing and now they are capped. Is that fair?" he said.

"Chartered accountants earn in that bracket. They start off raw and after a year or two they have experience and then you say sorry, your salary is capped. Again, not fair."

Dippenaar said he was not sure whether the plan would lead to a "mass exodus", but could possibly "tip" those who had been thinking about leaving the country.

"Certainly, if you cap salaries it's not conducive to keeping people here. It's more conducive to people leaving. It's just the degree, how many will leave, one doesn't know," he said.

"If you turn it around and say is that something that will keep people in SA, definitely not."

He said that while investors preferred investing in countries with sound policies, he did not think this one would have a negative effect.

Michael Spicer, CEO of Business Leadership SA, said the plan was "from every conceivable aspect, a bad thing".

"It would inevitably contribute to a further brain drain and the inability to hire the very specialists on whom, for example, the infrastructure roll-out will depend, and so it will have knock-on effects all over the place and that's why I'm totally confident that the moment people pause and think about it, they'll realise it's a bad idea," he said.

Nina Morris, CEO of advertising company morrisjones&co said the plan was the "most preposterous proposal" she had ever come across and that it would was "nonsense" that anybody would consider capping her salary. "I think it's insane. It's just so ridiculous that I don't even know why it gets airtime. It's pathetic," she said.

Anton Pietersen and Jorge Haynes, both in financial services, have "not quite yet" reached the R550 000 bracket discussed, but both gave the proposal the thumbs down.

"I don't see how government can dictate. What is the incentive to study and become a doctor and as a foreigner, why would you invest in a country?" said Haynes.

Said Pietersen: "Ag, I think it's totally ridiculous. If you look at most high-income earners, they would seek to leave ... It's going to open the door to more corruption."

Doreen - a visitor from London who declined to give her surname - said she had heard about the proposal and thought it was a good idea. "I wish they'd would do it in Britain, as long as it's not my husband. We should spread the wealth," she said.

Kgaogelo Rankapole, who is unemployed, said the proposal was unfair. "One thing that motivates people is money, regardless of how motivating the environment is, for most people, money motivates them."

Economist Mike Schussler said the government should first look at capping its own salaries.

''Executive boards at state-owned enterprises have long been accused of awarding 'unreasonable' and 'exorbitant' salary packages to chief executives," he said.

Nedbank CEO Mike Brown said: "In the reality of a global labour market and global companies, and in a country where we have a critical skills shortage, I do not believe wage capping can be successful.

"Quite simply, our best people will choose other places to work and our country will be worse off."