Ex-Eskom boss turned everything to dust – MPs
FORMER Eskom board chairperson Ben Ngubane has defended his track record at the power utility despite MPs saying he had collapsed Eskom, the SABC and the Land Bank.
Members of the inquiry into state capture said everything Ngubane touched turned to dust, and he over-protected Brian Molefe at the expense of other officials at Eskom.
In the hearing Ngubane was roasted about the R1.6bn pre-payment to Tegeta.
Natasha Mazzone of the DA said wherever Ngubane went, those institutions collapsed. She said when he went to the Land Bank it collapsed, when he joined the SABC board it also collapsed and the same thing happened at Eskom.
“It’s a denigration to my service in this country. Ask Phakamani (Hadebe, the acting Eskom chief executive), who was with me at the Land Bank. The SABC was broke in 2007. When I left we had paid off the R2bn loan at Nedbank. I have never been anyone’s favourite. To now paint such a picture is ridiculous,” Ngubane said.
He said when he got to Eskom they brought it from the brink and fixed it. He confirmed knowing the Guptas and Salim Essa, saying he met the latter in 2013 to discuss oil deals in the Central African Republic. He said Essa was a director in his oil and gas company.
But acting chairperson of the committee Zukiswa Rantho said Ngubane had protected Molefe at the expense of former chief executive, Tshediso Matona. Rantho said Matona was pushed to make way for Molefe.
“I am saying Matona was pushed out because there is a Brian Molefe that needs to be considered. Matona was pushed out because (Molefe) was to be considered and this is going to be proven.”
“Molefe left Eskom because of the public protector’s report that implicated him (in state capture) and he could not stand the heat at Eskom,” Rantho said.
She added that Matona was never given a chance to prove himself at Eskom and lasted only three months before Molefe was appointed to the position, first in an acting capacity in April 2015 before it was made permanent in October that year.