Zuma linked to Eskom review

By Paul Burkhardt
Jacob Zuma
Zuma contacted Matsietsi Mokholo, acting director of the Department of Public Enterprises, the ministry with oversight of the utility, suggesting that it support a review of the business initiated by Chairman Zola Tsotsi.

(Bloomberg) — South African President Jacob Zuma asked officials to support an inquiry into state-owned Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which resulted in the suspension of four managers including its chief executive officer, Business Day reported.

Zuma contacted Matsietsi Mokholo, acting director of the Department of Public Enterprises, the ministry with oversight of the utility, suggesting that it support a review of the business initiated by Chairman Zola Tsotsi, the Johannesburg-based newspaper said, citing individuals with direct knowledge of events at the department and the state’s so-called war room on energy.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said he had no comment when reached by phone. Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe deferred to the presidency when contacted by phone.

Eskom, which provides 95 percent of power driving Africa’s second-biggest economy, is struggling to plug a 225 billion-rand ($18 billion) cash-flow gap and has to ration supply to prevent its aging grid from collapse. Standard & Poor’s lowered Eskom’s rating to junk last week after Tsotsi suspended CEO Tshediso Matona and three other officials and started a probe into the state of the business.

The suspensions took place a week after the executives initiated an audit of the utility’s tender procedures, Business Day said on Wednesday, without disclosing how it got the information.

The New Age newspaper said Eskom’s board planned a meeting Wednesday to consider the removal of Tsotsi as a director. The board will reconvene next week, Phasiwe said on Thursday. He didn’t know the outcome of the meeting.

Suspension Challenged

Matona has challenged his suspension and the case will be heard in the Labor Court on Thursday, state-owned SAFM reported.

Work at the construction site of Eskom’s 4,764-megawatt Medupi coal-fired plant, which will be the company’s second- largest facility, resumed on Thursday after the complex was closed on Wednesday following a worker protest over bonuses and accommodation, Phasiwe said.

The protesting employees are contractors and want completion bonuses paid after each of six units at the site is finished, rather than one payment at the end of the entire project, Stephen Nhlapo, head of basic metals and energy at the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, said on SAFM.

There have been as many as 14,000 employees at the site, Phasiwe said.

Visited 45 times, 1 visit(s) today