A mistake to fire Gordhan: expert
AMID mounting pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to axe Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, energy expert Chris Yelland said such a move would spell disaster for the already embattled power utility.
The target on Gordhan’s back follows a bombshell dropped by Deputy President David Mabuza, who accused Gordhan and the Eskom board of misleading Ramaphosa on how they intended to put an end to load shedding.
Following Mabuza’s comments his namesake, Jabu Mabuza, resigned as chairperson of the Eskom board.
Yelland said that in the meanwhile it would make sense to depoliticise Eskom and keep Gordhan in charge of the Public Enterprises ministry because the power utility was going through a tumultuous time.
“They need to focus on practical issues that can make a difference because at the moment there is clearly political infighting and a power struggle taking place between the different camps within the ANC.
“It does not bode well for a stateowned enterprise like Eskom to become a political football, kicked around by these political forces. We need not play into this kind of infighting, which will do the country absolutely no good when it comes to electricity and energy,” Yelland said.
He added that placing Eskom under the Mineral Resources and Energy department would be a bad idea because the department was severely under-resourced and unable to cope with what they do currently, let alone taking on responsibility for the oversight of a 47 000-personnel public enterprise.
“It took seven years for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to bring out an integrated resource plan, which is nothing more than a plan on a piece of paper. I cannot see that they have the necessary people, competencies and experience to provide the necessary oversight for Eskom,” Yelland said.
He added such a move, with Eskom having recently appointed a new chief executive, and with Mabuza resigning, would place “massive risk” on Eskom and the country, as the timing could not be worse.
Trade union Cosatu has called for the entire Eskom board to “do the honourable thing” and follow Mabuza by tendering their resignations.
“It (his resignation) has come at the right time,” Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi said. “We have been long calling for it. Since August last year, Cosatu has called for the entire board of Eskom to step down. We are saying to the rest of the board, do the honourable thing and tender your resignation and follow suit.”
Economist Dawie Roodt said that given Ramaphosa and Gordhan’s close relationship, he did not expect Ramaphosa to axe Gordhan, and that this would also be aided by Ramaphosa not being a strong president.
“There’s a lot of opposition against him in government, and I think Ramaphosa would like to keep people on his side in the Cabinet as much as he can,” Roodt said.