Brown plans a round of musical chairs for Eskom board members

PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown is expected to wield the axe at Eskom’s annual general meeting on Friday.

Indications are that she will use the opportunity to rotate members of the board following a number of scandals that have rocked the utility over the past few months. There won’t be a complete clear-out though. She is expected to retain one or two members for purposes of continuity.

Acting chair person Zethembe Khoza, who took over the reins after Ben Ngubane quit in a huff last week, is expected to stay.

The board was appointed by the cabinet in 2014 and its term of office ends later this year. Brown’s spokesperson, Colin Cruywagen, yesterday confirmed the AGM will go ahead on Friday. “The AGM will give her the opportunity to rotate the board,” he said.

Brown has also mentioned in Parliament recently that she wanted to rotate the board.

Cruywagen did not want to be drawn into the goings-on in the board, whose members have faced a barrage of calls to be axed since it brought Brian Molefe back to the utility. The parties are now in court with Molefe fighting to get his job back and opposition parties demanding he should not be re-hired. Molefe turned to the court after the cabinet had instructed Brown to fire him. The fallout began after news broke that Molefe stood to receive R30 million for the 18 months he worked at Eskom. When Brown rejected this payout, the Eskom board decided to reappoint Molefe.

Parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises is expected to begin the Eskom inquiry next Wednesday. It will coverits coal contracts and the recent re-appointment of Molefe as chief executive.

This is a separate process from that initiated by Brown to rope in the Special Investigating Unit to probe tenders at Eskom dating back to 2007.Brown has said she wants the SIU to look at all the reports on Eskom. She said the SIU investigation wouldget to the bottom of all the problems at Eskom.

Parliament wants to expedite its own inquiry into Eskom.