END GAME FOR ESKOM BOARD

Ben Ngubane’s departure may be overdue, but he leaves behind a crippled board with just five directors — compared to 14 three years ago

It was fitting that on the day Hlaudi Motsoeneng was given his (final?) marching orders from the SABC, his erstwhile protector Ben Ngubane quit as chairman of electricity parastatal Eskom. The 75-yearold Ngubane has done much in the past few years to dismantle the legacy of any good work he might have done as a minister in Nelson Mandela’s first cabinet, and as premier of Kwazulu Natal.

His resignation “with immediate effect” this week follows his equally ignominious departure, in 2013, as chairman of the SABC, where he was accused of facilitating Motsoeneng’s reign of terror.

It’s been the same story at Eskom, where Ngubane pedalled to protect Brian Molefe as if his career depended on it. Last month, Ngubane welcomed Molefe’s (short-lived) return, saying it is “going to be for the good. He is going to be carrying on where he stopped, making affordable electricity available”. Then again, maybe his career did depend on it. Last week, it emerged in leaked e-mails that associates of the Gupta family had even, ludicrously, helped draft Ngubane’s first speech when he took over as Eskom chairman in March 2015.

This is clear from an e-mail from Oakbay’s thenceo Nazeem Howa to Salim Essa (a business partner of the Guptas) to which a document is attached, entitled: “Statement by Dr Ben Ngubane, chairperson of Eskom on behalf of the board”. Howa says to Essa: “Salim bhai. An amended version for your approval.”

A malleable chairman of a state-owned company was worth his weight in Saxonwold gold, it seems.

Ngubane was also woefully out of touch — a seri- ous impediment for a chair of a state-owned company.

This was never more evident than when he was asked by reporter Stephen Grootes a few weeks ago why he hadn’t suspended Eskom’s acting CEO Matshela Koko — who was caught in a lie over a R600m prepayment to the Guptas during an interview with Carte Blanche. Ngubane, implausibly, claimed he hadn’t seen Koko’s on-air gaffe.

“I don’t sit at home and watch TV all the time. I travel between provinces and so on,” he said.

It was, in itself, a telling admission from a man who had chaired a little-known broadcaster known as the SABC.

After Molefe quit during Shebeengate, Ngubane flayed former public protector Thuli Madonsela, saying she had “struck a deadly blow against Eskom and against the people of SA”.

But this wasn’t Ngubane’s first rodeo. In 2014, Madonsela found that Ngubane had “acted irregularly” at the SABC, where he ordered the job requirements for the chief operating officer “be altered to remove academic qualifications”, so as to tailor it to suit Motsoeneng — an “abuse or unjustified use of power”.

The title of Madonsela’s SABC report, “When Governance and Ethics Fail”, could equally have been applied to the Eskom board under Ngubane.

But there seems more to his resignation than meets the eye. Usually, you’d have expected him to step down at Eskom’s AGM, which is just two weeks away. Even the ANC’S study group on public enterprises says Ngubane’s timing is “surprising and suspect”.

Still, while Ngubane’s departure is welcome, he leaves behind a crippled board which has been shedding directors faster than Malusi Gigaba switches suits.

Today, at one of Eskom’s darkest moments, it has no permanent CEO or chair and a board of just five people — directors who’re meant to oversee multibillion-rand contracts. By contrast, as recently as 2014, Eskom boasted 14 directors.

Last month, Venete Klein joined the exodus of directors. Predictably, Eskom told no-one she’d left.

Klein told the Financial Mail: “I actually resigned a year ago, but the minister asked me to stay until new board members were appointed. I had a conflict with another board I sat on, but since no new directors have been appointed, I decided now was a good time.”

But Klein was in an invidious position: for the past three years, she’d chaired the Institute of Directors (IOD) — a professional body meant to promote governance. Yet the IOD was one of those criticising Eskom’s “lack of transparency” around Molefe.

Wasn’t it was awkward for Klein to serve on Eskom’s board at the same time it was being castigated for poor governance? “No,” says Klein. “Everyone has different views.”

Well, the resounding view is that Ngubane’s board was to corporate governance what ANN7 is to broadcasting: worth keeping an eye on for the comedy factor, but about as solid as jelly.

Eskom’s chairman, who fought for Hlaudi Motsoeneng, wasn’t the man you’d want in your corner