Molefe, Koko to help EFF end load-shedding
The EFF proposes bringing former Eskom CEOs Brian Molefe and Matshela Koko back into the power utility’s fold as part of its plans to end load-shedding within six months.
“Brian Molefe is waiting ... Matshela Koko is waiting ... and many other professionals, including the current CEO [Dan Marokane] by the way,” Malema said during a press briefing on Thursday.
“When you are in a crisis you bring out your best of the best, including those in retirement. We don’t have business in making money out of Eskom ... we don ’ t want tenders in Eskom. We want to give our people electricity,” he said.
Other proposals by the party to end power cuts should it be voted into power include cancelling Eskom’s contracts with private partners, halting the closure of the utility’s coal power stations and stopping the separation of the power utility into separate generation, transmission and distribution entities.
“The EFF government will expropriate all land without compensation for equal redistribution in use, create millions of jobs through reindustrialisation using the state, stop load-shedding, rebuild our education system and fix crime in this country,” Malema said.
SA is due to hold elections in 2024, and various polls have predicted that the EFF’s electoral support will grow.
Both Molefe and Koko left the power utility between 2017 and 2018 under a cloud of controversy — emanating from the pair’s separate alleged business relationships with the discredited Gupta family.
The family and friends of former president Jacob Zuma scored numerous tenders from the government and stateowned entities worth billions of rand, and wielded so much influence that they were involved in the appointments of ANC politicians and senior public servants.
During their respective tenures, the country experienced a combined 852 hours of load-shedding, which is far below the 6,800 hours of blackouts in 2023.
However, the state capture commission ’ s final report, released in 2022, recommended that most of Eskom’s former board of directors and executives, including Koko, Molefe and then CFO Anoj Singh, be investigated and possibly prosecuted for their alleged roles in enabling the Gupta family to loot Eskom, in exchange for substantial kickbacks.
Molefe is facing criminal charges in to a multimillion-rand corruption and fraud case linked to the procurement of 1,064 locomotives for Transnet, where he was CEO from 2011 to 2016. In 2022, the power utility said it had recovered the R30m it unlawfully paid to Molefe’s Eskom Pension & Provident Fund (EPPF).
In November 2023, the Middelburg specialised commercial crimes court struck Koko’s R2.2bn fraud, corruption and money-laundering case from the roll due to unreasonable delays by the state.
A recent poll by market research firm Ipsos shows the ANC electoral support falling to 38.5% in the national and provincial elections, compared with 57.6% in 2019 and 45.59% in 2021.
The poll, conducted between October and December, further shows that the EFF, the thirdlargest party by seats in the National Assembly, is poised to shoot past the DA as the official opposition or the second-largest party in parliament.
The EFF is estimated to grow to 18.6% of the vote, while the DA’s support is forecast to fall to 17.3% from 21.62% in the 2021 municipal polls, and 20.77% in the 2019 national election.
According to a Wits University survey, the ANC faces a historic defeat, with only 42% of registered voters who intend to vote supporting it. The DA and the EFF trail with 19% and 16%, respectively, while the rest of the vote is split among smaller parties, many of which are already fading away.
Meanwhile, Malema has thrown his hat into the ring for his party’s internal leadership contest, saying he is available to be re-elected to the position at the EFF’s elective and policy conference in December.
Should he succeed, Malema would lead the leftist party for another five years. He has been in the position since its inception in 2013.
The EFF’s constitution does not place limits on members serving in its top six positions, allowing them multiple terms of five years each.
“When I am nominated at that conference, I am going to accept nomination,” he told journalists on Thursday.
“All I did in this term was to offer myself ... I did everything humanly possible to keep this organisation alive and I have got no regrets.”