Utility executives got boot so R1bn IT tender could be pushed
THE Eskom board again came under fire in Parliament yesterday over how it axed former executives and pushed through a R1 billion tender deal for information technology and maintenance at power stations.
Former chief executive Tshediso Matona and group executive for enterprise development Erica Johnson told of fights over procurement and The New Age breakfast deal worth R43 million when the utility was in financial distress.
Matona told the inquiry into state capture that Eskom was already facing a cash crisis when he was still director-general at the Department of Public Enterprises. This resulted in the R23 billion secured after the government sold its 13.9 percent Vodacom stake in 2015.
In addition, the government converted its loan of R60bn into equity. Matona said by the time he joined Eskom in October 2014, its board was already besieged by internal squabbles over tenders.
“You can call it turmoil. There was serious infighting on the Eskom board, largely to do with procurement,” he said.
He said one of the issues at stake involved various multimillion-rand contracts.
He said he was shocked when he was suspended in March 2015 after only five months on the job. He also said he did not buy the board’s story that his suspension had to do with the state of affairs at Eskom.
“I could not buy that because the problems of the company were clear at the time. We were working on those problems. I expressed my dissatisfaction at an investigation and, least of all, my removal. At the time I did not know the same thing was proposed for the other executives. I believe that action was wrong.”
He said the environment had become so unbearable he would not have gone back even if he could have.
He reached a settlement with Eskom after the Labour Court and Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration processes.
Johnson said former acting chief executive Collin Matjila had pushed through The New Age breakfast deal worth R43m despite the fact that the utility was in dire straits. Johnson also said Eskom extended the IT and maintenance contract, worth R1bn, with a service provider despite three other companies being shortlisted.