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Voices of discontent against Ngubane grow

Cape Town - The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) wants Eskom Board chairperson Ben Ngubane to face a judicial commission of inquiry for his role in the alleged mismanagement of Eskom during his tenure of office.

Ngubane’s resignation was announced on Monday night by Public Enterprises Minister Lynn Brown. The minister appointed Zethembe Khoza as Eskom's interim chairperson.

Fedusa said it would be a travesty of justice to let Ngubane get off the hook so lightly. The union federation said the damning revelations of the capture of Eskom leadership by the Guptas, and the breakdown of corporate governance should be firmly placed at the door of Ngubane.    
 
“Ngubane must be held accountable before an independent judicial commission of inquiry. This is in accordance with our 6th National Congress in November last year which resolved that Directors found guilty of mismanaging resources on their watch should face the full might of our company laws,” said Fedusa acting secretary general Riefdah Ajam.  
 
“The rationale of this remedy is that a director who is guilty of serious abuse of his position and infringements of his fiduciary duties should not be allowed to continue to hold a directorship or should only be allowed to continue to do so under strict conditions imposed by a court," she explained.

Fedusa's congress further resolved that the federation would approach the high court, declaring transgressors as delinquent directors, which will prevent them from holding directorships in any other company or business and send a very strong warning to the directors of other state owned enterprises”.

READ: NUM calls on entire Eskom board to resign

Labour union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Tuesday lashed out at the entire board of Eskom, saying it is a disgrace to the power utility and the government.

“We need men and women with integrity who will also care about the well-being of the employees who are the only source of ‘lights on’ agenda,” said NUM in a statement.

Spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu told Fin24 that the board had done nothing good for the company. “It has been chaos after chaos and the employees at Eskom can’t take it… It is for the good of Eskom that they resign.”

READ: OUTA lays criminal charges against Ngubane

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has gone a step further by lodging a criminal complaint, which includes charges of fraud, forgery and contravention of provisions of the Companies Act, against Ngubane.

This relates to Ngubane and his wife failing to pay back R50m borrowed from state-owned company, Ithala Development Finance Corporation.

"We have obtained evidence to substantiate our claims and are confident of the strength of our case against Ngubane,” said Ted Blom, OUTA portfolio director for energy.

Ngubane and his wife Sheila are the sole shareholders and directors of the private company Huntrex 305. Huntrex 305 owns Zululand Quarries, Natal Sands and Hanis Investments.

“Zululand Quarries and Natal Sands had certain mining rights. In order to finance the purchase of these companies, Huntrex obtained a loan of R50m from Ithala Development Finance Corporation,” explained Blom.

“Huntrex defaulted on the loan repayments and was liquidated following an application by Ithala, its biggest creditor.”

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