Molefe awaits court date for appeal bid

Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe is awaiting a court date to determine whether he will be granted leave to appeal against an order made in January compelling him to pay back about R11-million that he received as a pension payout.

Molefe was given 10 days within which to make the payment and was ordered to pay the legal costs of the DA‚ EFF and trade union Solidarity.

The parties had applied to the High Court in Pretoria in 2017 for an order to set aside the decision by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown to appoint or reinstate Molefe as CEO. This was after he had left on a purported early retirement package.

The DA also asked for an order that any payments to Molefe as part of the “retirement” package be set aside and that he repay that money within 10 days of the order.

When the matter was heard in 2017, the Eskom pension fund had already paid him R10.3m.

Solidarity said on Thursday that it will oppose Molefe’s application for leave to appeal.

Molefe resigned from Eskom was the time Molefe was given to make the payment in November 2016‚ claiming he was acting in the interests of good governance after a public protector’s report.

Solidarity CE Dirk Hermann said criminal charges had been laid against Molefe and former Eskom chairman Ben Ngubane.

Molefe’s lawyer‚ Barry Farber‚ said his team was waiting for a court date for the appeal application to be heard.