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Cape Town - The Parliamentary oversight committee on Tuesday questioned Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and the Eskom board over the reinstatement of Brian Molefe as chief executive.
What happened so far:
Brown withdrew her opposition of the court application by the DA to have Molefe's reappointment set aside. She however reserved her rights with regard to Part B of the motion, which seeks to stop Molefe from conducting any work at Eskom.
READ: FULL STATEMENT: Lynne Brown withdraws opposition to DA's Molefe case
Opposition parties weigh in:
EFF MP Floyd Shivambu: Warns Eskom and Minister Lynne Brown that if they lie, Parliament will get police to arrest them.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen: I smell a rat. I know Minister Brown to be a good minister. I know her to have exercised her best fiduciary duties. What has happened here is an outlier of her normal behaviour. It makes me very suspicious. Let us dispense with the nonsense. Brian Molefe was not on maternity leave. He tacitly resigned from Eskom.
IFP MP Narend Singh: At the heart of the issue is good governance (of the Eskom board). Did Mr Molefe commit perjury when he raised his hand and was sworn in as a member of parliament? We accept that a person is innocent until he is proven guilty. But there is no process to find this out.
And then the Pravin Gordhan surprise:
In an unprecedented move, the former finance minister accused Eskom of state capture while he climbed into Brown and Eskom chairperson Ben Ngubane.
Gordhan, now a permanent member of the portfolio committee on public enterprises, arrived late at his maiden appearance at a briefing where the Parliamentary oversight committee questioned Brown and the Eskom board over the reinstatement of Brian Molefe as chief executive.
"You are part of a conspiracy to capture Eskom for the purposes or benefit of the few. That is the reality. Let us not play around with technical questions. That’s the reality," Gordhan charged.
READ: Gordhan launches surprise attack on Eskom
