The Parliamentary portfolio committee investigating the reappointment of Eskom CEO, Brian Molefe, says that it views the move as illegal until it can be convinced otherwise.<\/p>\n
“We are not convinced, I won’t lie to you,” acting committee chair Daphne Rantho told public enterprises minister, Lynne Brown and the Eskom board members present on Tuesday. “There are still many questions around this issue.”<\/p>\n
“The committee is concerned with the state of governance at Eskom – there seems to be a breakdown in communication between shareholders (government) and the state-owned company.<\/p>\n
“The committee views the reappointment of Mr Molefe with serious concern – in fact, the committee sees the reappointment as an illegal thing that happened at Eskom, until (we are)\u00a0convinced otherwise,” Rantho said.<\/p>\n
“We are going to continue with this process that we have started.”<\/p>\n
The committee, which is made up of several prominent MPs, including former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, spent much of Tuesday morning grilling Brown and Eskom chair Ben Ngubane over the reappointment of Molefe.<\/p>\n
The Eskom leads maintain that Molefe had never resigned – despite giving that impression at the time he stepped down in November 2016 – saying rather that he applied for early retirement. This could not legally be done as Molefe was too young, and so he had to be reinstated.<\/p>\n
The portfolio committee was not moved by this explanation, raising questions around Molefe’s time as an ANC MP and the fact the Eskom board took five months to even bring this matter up.<\/p>\n
Questions were also asked about Molefe’s fitness to hold the position with the Public Protector’s findings against him still standing,\u00a0which remain unchallenged.<\/p>\n
The committee called for transparency, and wants access to Molefe’s contracts, minutes of meetings and all relevant documents related to his reappointment.<\/p>\n