‘No malice’ in suspensions, says Eskom boss
ESKOM chief executive Tshediso Matona and three senior executives may have been suspended to keep them out of the way of an inquiry they had opposed for as long as a year.
Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi told reporters in Joburg yesterday that there was no suspicion of wrongdoing and that there were no charges against the four.
“There is no malice. There is no wrongdoing that is under consideration.”
Tsotsi said the four had been asked to step down in the interest of achieving results.
It was important to note that it was an inquiry, not an investigation, into the poor performance of generation plants, delays in bringing plants on-stream, the high costs of primary energy, and cash-flow problems.
Non-executive board member Zethembe Khoza will assume the position of interim chief executive.
Tsotsi said the “critical” process would not last longer than three months.
But Chris Yelland, an independent publisher on science and the energy industry, said the suspensions would have the shortterm effect of leaving the state corporation without leadership at a time when important decisions had to be made.
And if the board’s action did not carry the approval of Eskom’s shareholder, the government, the investigation and its report would be of no value.
Yelland said the current Eskom board had been set up only late last year. It sat for the first time on Wednesday and was probably appraised of Eskom’s current financial situation. “There must have been some quite shocking revelations during that session for them to suspend the CEO and launch
an open, independent inquiry at their first meeting,” Yelland said. “This is a move by the board members to assert themselves. The chairman did say that the board had the support of the shareholder, but we have not heard this from the shareholder directly. We should hear it as a matter of urgency.
“I believe that the CEO and the other three had been suspended to keep them from interfering with an inquiry they had vehemently opposed for more than a year.”
The other three executives are finance director Tsholofelo Molefe, group capital executive Dan Morokane and commercial and technology executive Matshela Koko.
Yelland said the expensive cost overruns at major Eskom power station projects, significant reduction in electricity sales and poor performance from the power utility’s fleet of power stations were the main features of the corporation’s financial woes.
He pointed out that apart from the chief executive, the other suspensions spoke directly to each of these three problems.
“I just hope that the inquiry is not hamstrung by government ideology. If Eskom has to be unbundled, it should be unbundled. If assets had to be sold, they should be sold. We cannot have government ideology disrupt a much-needed process to get the corporation back on its feet.”
Responding to the announcement of the inquiry, Western Cape Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde said the move effectively left Eskom without its top management at a time when the power utility was battling to keep the lights on, struggling to provide uninterrupted power supply due to technical difficulties at its power plants, collapsing silos and ageing infrastructure.
“I don’t know where the problem lies, but we’ve got huge instability and we need to sort out our energy crisis. I can guarantee that throwing another crisis into the middle of an ongoing crisis does not make any sense. I think it is about time that we get some stability in our national energy production.”
Winde said all parastatals appeared to be the same – “they suspend CEOs and they launch investigations left, right and centre”.
“If people are not doing their jobs, let’s fix the problem, not create new ones.”
The DA’s parliamentary spokeswoman on Public Enterprises, Natasha Mazzone, echoed Winde’s concerns. “Minister (Lynne) Brown must be forthcoming with reasons as to why this step was taken now, and reassure the South African public that no hidden agendas are being pursued in the name of good corporate governance.”
Mazzone added that the problems at Eskom, though partially attributable to Motana’s lack of direct private sector experience, were not his creation. “His tenure of barely six months pales in comparison with the sheer incompetence of former CEO, Brian Dames, who was rewarded with a golden parachute of over R5 million after overseeing the virtual collapse of Eskom.”
The DA said it would continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure that any inquiry was not manipulated and used as a smokescreen to purge executives who had thus far been forthcoming with information regarding the crisis at Eskom.