Note 6: Operating expenses

For the year ended 31 march 2011

	Restated 2010	2011
	Rm	Rm
Operating expenses
6.1 Employee expenses	9,785	9,745
Salaries and wages	6,718	7,085
Medical aid contributions	17	19
Retirement contributions	528	581
Post-retirement pension and retirement fund	(129)	(160)
Post-retirement medical aid	388	425
Telephone rebates	49	67
Share-based compensation expense	1,330	86
Other benefits^*	394	1,166
Bonuses	1,048	911
Employee expenses capitalised	(558)	(435)
^*Other benefits
Other benefits include skills development, annual leave, performance incentive and voluntary employee severance packages costs.
Voluntary employee severance packages cost amounted to R739 million (2010: RNil million).
The increase in salaries and wages is mainly due to an average salary increase of 8.3% and a percentile adjustment for bargaining unit as agreed upon with unions in September 2010.
The share-based compensation expense has decreased by R1,244 million due to the final vesting in June 2010.
6.2 Payments to other operators	7,563	5,584
Payments to other network operators consist of expenses in respect of interconnection with other network operators.
The decrease in payment to mobile operators is mainly due to mobile termination rates reduction and volume decrease that can be attributed to the growth in the mobile market.
6.3 Depreciation, amortisation, impairment and write-offs	8,207	5,084
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment	3,896	4,025
Amortisation of intangible assets	728	733
Impairment of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets	3,266	140
Write-offs of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets	317	186
The impairment charge for the 2011 financial year relates to iWayAfrica Group brand impairment of R41 million (2010: RNil million) and to Multi-Links' fixed-line business, R99 million (2010: R3,263 million).