The African National Congress (ANC) said on Friday it would seek engagement with the minister of public enterprises, Lynne Browne, about the decision taken by the board of Eskom to reinstate former chief executive, Brian Molefe.
“The African National Congress condemns the unfortunate and reckless decision taken by the Board of Directors of Eskom to reinstate Mr. Brian Molefe as chief executive officer of the energy utility,” said the ANC.
News broke on Friday morning that Molefe, now an ANC Member of Parliament, would be returning to the power utility on Monday after its board decided to rescind his application for early retirement because it could not agree with him on “a mutually beneficial pension proposal”.
Last month, Brown objected to Eskom’s R30 million pension payout to Molefe after he applied for an early retirement.
Parliament confirmed Molefe’s resignation as MP, effective from Sunday, after only three months in Parliament.
At Parliament, Molefe earned just more that R100 000 a month as an MP whereas he earned R792 000 monthly at Eskom, excluding bonuses.
Molefe left Eskom under a cloud following the release of the Public Protector’s report into state capture late last year.
The report raised questions about his proximity to members of the Gupta family whose company, Tegeta Exploration and Resources, is a supplier of coal to Eskom.
Molefe then resigned “in the interest of good corporate governance”.
The ANC said none of the observations against Molefe have been conclusively set aside and that his own commitment to fully clear his name was still pending.
“The decision therefore to reinstate him in his former position without these matters being resolved is tone deaf to the South African public’s absolute exasperation and anger at what seems to be government’s lackluster and lackadaisical approach to dealing decisively with corruption – perceived or real.”
Eskom board spokesperson, Khulani Qoma, confirmed that Molefe was returning to Eskom, saying that the Public Protector’s report was inconclusive.
“When he stepped down the board was not in agreement, it grudgingly accepted that he was stepping down. The State of Capture [report] is actually not a conclusive document and we will have a conversation if it gets concluded at the point when it does, if it does,” Qoma said.
“As it stands, we cannot hang him on the basis of the [Public Protector’s] report, which is admittedly not conclusive,” he added.
This week, National Treasury briefed Parliament’s watchdog public accounts committee on a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers into Eskom’s coal contracts with Tegeta. The auditing firm found that Eskom did not perform due diligence in its apparent haste to contract with the company in 2015.
In her report, former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that Molefe had regular contact with the Gupta family and that Eskom appeared to have gone out of its way to went out of its way to favour Tegeta over other suppliers.
The Inkatha Freedom Party said Molefe’s return to Eskom was a disgrace.
“This matter beggars all belief! Molefe has an extremely chequered and compromised past as Eskom CEO with Minister Lynne Brown even calling for a commission of inquiry into the parastatal’s dubious relations with Gupta’s and their coal mining operation Tegeta, which had not complied with any of Eskom’s supply chain management principles.
“That the Eskom Board and the minister could even have considered his reinstatement as CEO as a solution when not finding an agreed upon pension amount is preposterous! The discussion should not be centred around remuneration but rather about his accountability to the parastatal for all of the suspect transactions that have transpired under his watch.”
Brown’s spokesman refused to take questions, saying the ministry would release a statement later in the day.