CAPE TOWN - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said Friday that she believed it was preferable to have Brian Molefe back in his old job as CEO of Eskom than have to pay him a R30m pension payout.
The minister also announced interim CE Matshela Koko had decided to take leave pending the outcome of an inquiry by legal firm Cliff Dekker Hofmeyr into allegations that his stepdaughter, Koketso Choma, received R1bn while a director of Impulse International, which received a number of contracts from Eskom when Koko was head of generation.
Brown said at a hastily called media briefing that the Eskom board had consulted her this week about the outcome of its deliberations with Molefe on the R30m pension payout, which Brown had previously rejected.
Various options were considered, including the reinstatement of Molefe, who agreed to serve the remaining term of his original contract and to reconsider the terms of the contract which resulted in the pension payment of the R30m.
He will return all the money he received on his departure after being accused of corruption in former public protector Thuli Madonsela's State of Capture report.
Brown said taking back Molefe offered a better value proposition for the fiscus than the R30m proposal. She informed the board she was satisfied with the proposal, on the proviso of its legality - which the board assured her was the case.
"I still think it is a better proposition than paying Mr Molefe R30m as a pension," she said on Friday.
"There isn't another solution other than paying Mr Molefe R30m or taking Eskom to court."
At the end of his five-year term in September 2020 - he has three-and-a-half years remaining - Molefe would get his normal pension, not R30m, Brown said.
Brown said she understood the public outrage, which was why she had called a media briefing.
She said the outrage was about Madonsela's state capture report, which recommended that a commission of inquiry investigate the allegations further.
Until this investigation took place, Molefe "is not guilty of anything. He has been accused of having been captured and so he therefore cannot go back to Eskom. The man has not been found guilty yet. He must be seen as innocent until he is proven guilty.
"When Mr Molefe is declared guilty or not, then we then we can take his decision on whether his return is ethical or not," Brown said.
She did not think the credit ratings agencies would be able to fault Eskom on its financials. It has given the minister the assurance that it will reduce its R350bn state guarantee by almost R100bn in five years - something not to be scoffed at.
"I think the company itself is quite sustainable," Brown said, adding that it was Molefe who had brought Eskom where it was today.
She said she would call a press conference next week with the Eskom board so that board members could answer questions about the reinstatement of Molefe.
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