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Cape Town - The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), led by former Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi, wants the decision to reappointment Brian Molefe as Eskom chief executive reversed and the board led by Ben Ngubane dismissed.
“Saftu demands that the decision to reinstate Molefe must be immediately reversed and that the entire Eskom board be dismissed and that a new democratically accountable board be appointed with representatives from the Eskom workers and communities,” it said in a statement on Friday.
“It is outrageous that someone who is facing serious allegations in the report of the former Public Protector can continue to head this vital national enterprise.
“The excuse that the Eskom board has given - that because (Public Enterprise) Minister Lynne Brown refused to allow the board to pay Molefe a R30m pension, it could not then find a mutually acceptable pension arrangement, and that this therefore nullified his early retirement application - is utterly preposterous.
“The minister rightly argued that there was no justification for such a payout since he had only been employed at Eskom for 18 months, and he had not retired but resigned, as he himself said, ‘in the interest of good corporate governance’.”
Molefe agreed to return to Eskom as its chief executive on Monday, after the board rescinded his application for early retirement, Eskom board spokesperson Khulani Qoma confirmed on Friday.
Molefe quit in November 2016 following former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report and has been a Member of Parliament for the past three months.
Qoma said the board met after Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown objected to Eskom’s R30m pension payout to Molefe, which she only discovered through a story in the Sunday Times on April 16.
Eskom chairperson Ben Ngubane told Business Report “that in accordance with the minister’s instructions, the parties attempted to find a mutually acceptable pension proposal, but were unable to reach such an arrangement.”
