Eskom’s inaction sends wrong signal
THE government went all out this week at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban to convince the international community that, despite its recent political problems and the economic downturn, South Africa fundamentally remains an attractive investment destination.
President Jacob Zuma and his critics, who include a number of his former and current ministers, seemed to set aside their differences for a while as they went on a charm offensive. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba was seen rubbing shoulders with Pravin Gordhan, his predecessor who was unceremoniously axed by the president, in what must have been designed to send the message that political differences do not mean the country is about to fall apart.
While it is important for our leaders, both in the government and in business, to speak with one voice on international platforms, this on its own is not going to restore the confidence we have slowly been losing in the eyes of outsiders, especially potential investors.
South Africa is rapidly gaining a reputation as a country that — despite having robust constitutional institutions — is being drowned by corruption and a disregard for the rule of law.
If we are to avoid being permanently counted among those countries where corruption has become the order of the day and law-enforcement agencies have lost all credibility, both the state and the business community will have to take concrete steps to show that such practices are not tolerated.
It is in this context that we are deeply disappointed that Eskom — a state-owned entity and one of the country’s largest companies — continues to have at its helm a man with a cloud hanging over him.
The Sunday Times recently revealed that a company linked to the stepdaughter of the parastatal’s acting CEO, Matshela Koko, scored contracts worth millions of rands from Eskom.
Yet Koko continues to call the shots at Eskom. The very least the Eskom board and Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown could have done was to put him on suspension while an investigation into the matter was ongoing.
This would have been made even more necessary by the fact that Koko remains accused of misleading the public on another controversial deal, involving Eskom and Zuma’s friends, the Guptas.
But instead of acting, the Eskom board is hiding behind a probe it has commissioned — saying that it cannot take action until the findings are released. Board chairman Ben Ngubane reacted angrily to criticism of his failure to suspend his CEO, even suggesting that there was a campaign to discredit black-run institutions and paint them as corrupt.
The call that Koko be put on cautionary suspension while the investigation continues is a reasonable one. It would send a message to the world — one that would be much stronger and clearer than handshakes between political foes — that South Africa is serious about rooting out corruption and fixing its governance issues.