Former Eskom board chairperson Ben Ngubane has rubbished assertions that he touted Brian Molefe’s name as the CEO of the power utility before his 2015 appointment.
Giving evidence at the commission of inquiry into state capture yesterday, Ngubane also dismissed insinuations that Gupta-linked individuals knew about Molefe’s appointment more than a year before it was announced.
“In the black community there are few people that have capabilities of Mr Brian Molefe. It would be easy to predict someone’s trajectory based on their capabilities…Sometimes you get to a point where the same people of Molefe’s skills and capabilities circulate in top positions from one government department to the other,” said Ngubane.
Deputy chief justice and commission chair Judge Raymond Zondo suggested to Ngubane that this practice would be “wrong” and unfair especially if individuals were not allowed to compete fairly during the hiring process for government posts.
“Well chairperson, I’ve been in politics and you have been in judiciary. Our approach would be different. .. Let me remind you that in our development as a government post-1994 there was a term “cadre deployment”. There may be competitive elements to it but when the elite governing party knows someone they think can fulfill their objectives they will make sure that person gets in,” responded Ngubane.
Molefe was appointed in April 2015, barely a month after then minister of public enterprises Lynne Brown had suspended four Eskom executives in March. Brown had previously told the commission that it was Ngubane who orchestrated Molefe’s appointment at the power utility.
At the time, Molefe was still the CEO of Transnet. “The two boards (Eskom and Transnet) negotiated discreetly the transfer of Molefe and Anoj Singh. My role was to approve the transaction,” read her affidavit.
However, Ngubane rejected this, claiming that he played a minimal role in Molefe’s appointment. “The minister (Brown) suggested we consider Mr Molefe. The board was amenable to the suggestion because we knew Molefe’s track record based on his work at Transnet and the Public Investment Commission. The board felt that Eskom was in dire straits and needed some of Molefe’s capabilities,” said Ngubane.
Molefe’s name was thrown around at the time when the auditor-general’s report painted a grim picture of Eskom’s finances, which suggested a possibility of staff not getting their salaries, Ngubane added.
“Brown asked the Eskom board to approach the Transnet board and request for Molefe’s release to Eskom…Later in a press conference Brown said Molefe’s secondment was even discussed with then president Jacob Zuma and deputy president (Cyril Ramaphosa). Quite clearly, this was a big decision which could not have been taken by just boards of the two organisations. There had to be a higher authority,” said Ngubane.
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