Underperforming Eskom pulls switch on bonuses for all employees

ESKOM’S bonus joyride has come to an abrupt halt: in an email this week the parastatal announced that not a single bonus would be paid out this year.

The e-mail, sent out internally on Wednesday by Eskom’s acting head of human resources Matome Makwela, and con- firmed by the utility’s media desk, sets out a list of reasons for stopping the bonuses.

Eskom was criticised last year for paying its three top executives — then CEO Brian Dames, chief financial officer Paul O’Flaherty and financial director Tsholofelo Molefe — a total of R24.4-million and for dishing out R62.8-million in per- formance bonuses.

Assigning bonuses to Eskom executives this year — given load-shedding — would have created far greater controversy.

According to the e-mail, Eskom did not meet its targets for saving money, bringing power stations on line and providing a continuous supply of electricity.

The e-mail said:

A financial sustainability measure achieving a total saving of R9.8-billion was set, in order for all employees to qualify for a bonus. This aim was not reached;

Unit 6 of Medupi power station was not commercially operative by the target date of May 31 this year;

Eskom’s energy availability factor had to be 77% for bonuses to be paid. The figure reached was 73.7%; and

“Unplanned capability loss factor” — unscheduled outages — were too high at 17%, against a figure of 10% on which bonuses were dependent.

Makwela wrote that several electricity-supply and maintenance targets had been met. But, he said, these were insufficient and “no bonuses will be paid out for the 2014-2015 financial year”.

“Although the qualifiers were not achieved, Eskom would like [to take] this opportunity to thank employees for their hard work, dedication and support during the year as we all worked to keep the lights on.”