Petro SA board dodges bullet after incurring losses of R1.1bn

THE Board of Petro South Africa yesterday escaped an attempt to have it dissolved over losses of R1.1 billion it had incurred, and for bonuses paid to its executives.

This happened after a call was made at an energy portfolio committee meeting yesterday to Minister of Energy Tina Joemat-Pettersson to fire the board.

“The problem with this structure is that there are people acting forever for a year or two. If you act you don’t take responsibility,” said committee member Motswaledi Matlala.

“On behalf of the committee I request of the minister: let’s fire the board and get new people who are serious about the lives of the people of this country,” Matlala said.

“Those who stole the money must be put in jail,” he said.

Matlala made the comments after the committee heard that the losses in PetroSA would be R1.1bn at the end of the financial year.

This is in addition to the R14.5bn incurred in 2014-15 in connection with the failed gas exploration programme, Project Ikhwezi.

The committee also heard that two executives involved in Project Ikhwezi had received golden handshakes on legal advice, while another senior official was demoted.

This took place as the entity retrenched more than 200 employees, and executives were paid “retention bonuses” to stay with it during the failed project.

Interim board chairperson Bhekabantu Ngubane said it would be a sad day if the board was fired for the entity’s losses and for the bonuses paid to executives.

He defended the payment of the “retention” bonuses, saying they had been signed by the old board.