Gordhan warns that former Eskom executives fighting to return

PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has warned that former executives who were fired at Eskom are involved in a fightback campaign.

Eskom has axed executives and this year it hastened the departure of 10 of them.

More people are to follow in the clean-up at Eskom, the power utility said.

Gordhan told the joint committees on public enterprises and energy yesterday that despite all the efforts to clean up the power utility, executives who were axed were fighting back.

Without naming anyone Gordhan said some of the executives were known to MPs.

He said some of the executives were all over the entities.

“The fightback campaign is quite widespread. In the institutions where malfeasance took place you have elements who left and have met with strange political forces. Former managers (of Eskom) who left must come and explain their conduct. There are former managers at Eskom who try to call the shots at Eskom. You know some of them; they appeared before you,” said Gordhan.

This was also confirmed by Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza who told the joint committees that this was a serious issue.

“There is a concerted fightback by those executives we have dismissed. The fight we are dealing with is more solid than normal transgressions you deal with in disciplinary hearings,” he said.

Mabuza said the executives who were fired from Eskom still had their tentacles on the power utility.

Eskom chief executive Phakama Hadebe said it will take two years to clean up the power utility. He said one of the things they will do is to tighten financial controls to avoid irregular expenditure, which ran into billions of rand.

Hadebe also told MPs they were working with the Hawks, the Special Investigating Unit, the National Prosecuting Authority, the National Treasury and the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into state capture on the corruption at Eskom.

They wanted to get to the bottom of the corruption that took place over the years and were co-operating with all law enforcement agencies.

Other than the 10 executives who were fired at Eskom, they have opened 11 criminal cases with the police, said Hadebe.

They have finalised more than 1 000 disciplinary cases against staff members since April this year and have finalised 628 of those cases.

Hadebe said they have dismissed 75 officials from Eskom. He also said they have taken action against 25 staff members doing business with Eskom.

The utility has investigated all irregular contracts. It has cancelled five of those contracts, which had cost it R2.3 billion in the past three years.