Give Eskom new brooms to clean up
As expected, Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown announced on Friday the appointment of new members to the Eskom board, while also retaining some from the old board.
In another development last week she announced the appointment of a new acting chairman and an acting group chief executive officer to take over from the disgraced Ben Ngubane and Brian Molefe respectively.
The new additions to the board are meant to, among other things, strengthen it.
We would have liked to see all the members of the old board which has been tainted by serious accusations that it had unlawfully favoured the Gupta family with lucrative contracts, sacked.
That would have allowed the power utility room to start afresh on a clean slate.
For too long Eskom, a company crucial to the economic growth of this country, has been mired in scandal, with the Gupta name and that of President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane being mentioned as undeserving beneficiaries of the parastatal’s largesse and patronage.
The leaked Gupta e-mails trove has laid bare some of the illicit shenanigans that have been going on between compromised officials and executives in state-owned companies such as Eskom, and the friends of the president.
With that as background, it is to be hoped that the new members of the board are people of impeccable character who, in executing their duties, will be guided only by what is in the interests of the power utility and the country.
We trust that the board will initiate and oversee an independent and robust investigation into suspect multibillion-rand contracts that its predecessor awarded to the Guptas, for example, and other politically connected individuals who have become multimillionaires overnight without breaking a sweat.
Such a probe must happen to ensure that never again will a state-owned entity such as Eskom fall under the sway of scheming elites out to make a quick buck at the expense of the people.
Finally, we urge the board and government, who are Eskom’s shareholders, to urgently get on with the task of appointing a permanent chairman and CEO.
The company is too important to the country to be managed by executives in acting capacities.