BRIAN Molefe is to quit Eskom in January in “the interests of good governance” following a report into state capture by the Public Protector which he derided for denying him his constitutional rights.
“I have in the interests of good governance, decided to leave my employ at Eskom from January 1, 2017. I do so voluntarily,” said Molefe in a two page statement.
In the statement, he said his resignation from Eskom, which he joined on a full time basis in September 2015, was not “an admission of wrongdoing on my part. It is rather what I feel to be the correct thing to do in the interests of the company and good corporate governance”.
Molefe’s resignation comes just over a week after the publication of a report into state capture by the Public Protector which attempted to establish a close link between him and the Gupta family.
Apart of accusations related to their closeness to President Jacob Zuma, the Gupta’s are also alleged to have benefited from Eskom’s undue generosity; specifically a prepayment for coal that the Public Protector concluded was to buy Optimum Coal Holdings.
The report also said that Molefe had prejudiced the rights of Glencore which it said was forced to put Optimum Coal Holdings into business rescue.
In a press conference last Friday, Molefe acknowledged it was his decision to insist Glencore pay a long-standing contract price for coal but he distanced himself from the report’s conclusions that he was close to the Guptas – without definitively denying claims he frequently visited the Guptas.
Today Molefe said he was confident his named would be cleared.
“I am confident that, when the time comes, I will be able to show that I have done nothing wrong and that my name will be cleared,” he said in the statement. He said the Public Protector’s report consisted of little but ‘observations’.
“I shall dedicate myself to showing that an injustice has been done by the precipitate delivery of ‘observations’ following an incomplete investigation which the former Public Protector has drawn back from calling ‘findings’. The truth will out,’ he added.
He said he would take “time off” before deciding on his next career move. Molefe was previously CEO of Transnet and head of the Public Investment Corporation before that.
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
Molefe was heavily critical of the fact that Thuli Madonsela, head of the Public Protector’s office at the time of the writing of the state capture report, had not given him the opportunity to respond in person to various allegations.
Madonsela has said, however, that a personal interview was not necessary to the writing of the report, relying instead on a number of Eskom files that Molefe confirmed had been delivered to the Public Protector.
He stuck by his defence that the observations in the report were “inaccurate, based on part-facts, or simply unfounded”. And by not asking for his side of the story, the Public Protector had: “effectively deferred my constitutional right to be heard to a future date, and to a further body, which she has ordered others to assemble”.
The report into state capture called for a commission of inquiry to test and interrogate the various allegations in the report. Eskom said it might seek to set aside the report although there was no further mention of this in Molefe’s statement today.
He said it would take a considerable amount of time for the commission of inquiry to be assembled, scheduled and heard.
