Business bodies call for Eskom CEO to be reinstated

Business lobby groups and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have called for the reinstatement of former acting Eskom CEO Johnny Dladla as concerns grow around the capture of Eskom.

On Friday, the utility’s board removed Dladla from his position and replaced him with Sean Maritz.

Dladla was appointed in June 2017, following the suspension of acting CEO Matshela Koko.

Eskom said Dladla’s removal had been approved by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and came after the board opted to make the acting CEO position a rotational one.

NUM said the rotation system “is nothing but a fluke aimed at deactivating controls and systems from detecting corruption at Eskom”.

“The NUM is reliably being informed that Mr Johnny Dladla was removed after he declared on a public platform that he was going to recoup money… unlawfully paid to McKinsey and Trillian totalling R1bn and R564m, respectively,” NUM said.

Business Leadership SA CEO Bonang Mohale said the body was concerned at another destabilising process at Eskom.

“This notion of a CEO rotation against a backdrop of muchneeded stability and certainty is most bizarre to the extreme. It can only be to destabilise the hard work that’s been done by the current executive and CEO around state capture,” he said.

The Black Business Council (BBC) has requested a meeting with Eskom to tackle similar concerns. Secretary-general George Sebulela said the BBC was a key stakeholder, as Eskom was an important implementer of radical economic transformation. The BBC was not consulted on the latest changes and “that is why it came as such a shock”.

BBC chairman Seiko Rasethaba said the government must reform state-owned enterprises instead of “playing musical chairs with the leadership” of the enterprises.

The CEO of Business Unity SA, Tanya Cohen, also expressed concern on behalf of the organisation and called for a permanent board and CEO to be put in place by next month.