Minister Lynne Brown’s assertion at a press conference earlier today that the reinstatement of Brian Molefe as Eskom CEO is the “only option” is disingenuous and simply not true.
In view of the spurious reasons given and the complete irrationality of the decision, we will once again be approaching the courts, this time to set aside Brian Molefe’s ‘redeployment’ by the ANC government to Eskom.
We believe that Brian Molefe was never entitled to the R30 million in the first place for two reasons, one he did not qualify for early retirement as he was under the age of 55 and two, he only worked at Eskom for 21 months accruing an estimated maximum retirement benefit of only R2,5 million.
According to section 24 of the Rules of the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund (EPPF), an employee is only eligible for pension benefits in terms of early retirement once they have reached the age of 55 years. Brian Molefe is currently 50, turning 51 in November of this year. He therefore never qualified for pension benefits under the early retirement provisions of the rules of the fund.
Moreover, our rough calculations having looked at the EPPF Rules, are that, on the basis of a R6,9 million annual salary, Molefe would only have accrued a maximum retirement benefit of R2,5 million on resignation from Eskom.
Brown therefore today clearly used the R30 million figure as a smoke screen to justify the unjustifiable return of Molefe to the CEO position.
It is highly suspicious that having failed to become the Minister of Finance, which seemed Zuma’s clear intention in deploying Molefe to Parliament, Minister Brown has now paved a smooth return for him to Eskom.
Indeed, Molefe was clearly of no use to Zuma and the Gupta family in the back benches of Parliament.