Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe’s early retirement deal was a “deliberate scheme” concocted by him and the group shortly after he was employed in 2016, the High Court in Pretoria found on Thursday.
However, this scheme was put into motion only after Molefe resigned from Eskom under a cloud following the damning findings against him in the public protector’s State of Capture report. The report detailed how Molefe abused his position at Eskom to benefit the Gupta family in an “improper and possibly corrupt” manner.
A full bench of the high court delivered the ruling on Thursday, ordering Molefe to pay back the R10.3m Eskom had already paid to him as part of the retirement settlement, saying he was never entitled to such benefits.
Molefe was given 10 days in which to make the payment and ordered to pay the legal costs of the applicants in the case: trade union Solidarity and the DA.
The judges found there was a “total lack of dignity and shame by people in leadership positions who abuse public funds with naked greed for their own benefit without a moment’s consideration of the circumstances of fellow citizens who live in absolute squalor throughout the country with no basic services”.
Molefe resigned from Eskom in November 2016, claiming
that he was acting in the interests of good governance after the release of the public protector’s report.
Board approval
It was later discovered that on the same day, he submitted a request for early retirement. Despite his ineligibility, the Eskom board approved his request after the parties
reached agreement.
Molefe’s application for early retirement was later processed by the utility’s pension fund despite the fact that it went against the fund’s rules.
The court also set aside Molefe’s subsequent reinstatement, which was effected by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown after the early retirement plan fell through.
The court said the minister acted irrationally when she reinstated Molefe in order to recoup the unlawfully attained pension benefit. “The correct approach would have been to refuse the pension-payout proposal out of hand.
“There was no obligation on the minister to incur the burden of an unlawful obligation on behalf of Eskom,” the judges ruled. The judges also found that the allegations contained in the public protector’s report should not be ignored by the minister and Eskom.
“They [the charges] are a dead weight that he [Molefe] must carry until he is cleared,” the judges said.
Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said the judgment would pave the way for charges to be brought against Molefe as the findings were a clear definition of fraud. The DA and Solidarity described the victory as a win for the public.
Molefe’s unlawful-dismissal case launched in the Labour Court in June 2017 is expected to fall away as it was halted pending the outcome in the high court.
mahlakoanat@businesslive.co.za
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