Photo: Jacques Nelles
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has condemned the remarks by Eskom board member Mteto Nyati that to save the ailing parastatal black economic empowerment (BEE) and affirmative action policies must be discarded if the electricity crisis is to be solved.
The Sunday Times reported that Nyati believes empowerment rules are hampering Eskom’s performance.
Nyati who is one of South Africa’s most prolific tech CEOs, having served as the head of MTN South Africa, Microsoft South Africa, and Altron after starting his career at IBM in 1996, is now in charge of the Eskom board’s new business operations performance committee.
The committee works with Eskom’s management team to optimise the embattled electricity supply.
“It’s our responsibility as the board to remove any blockages or challenges in the way of the management team so they can focus on doing what they know best,” said Nyati.
However, the EFF said Nyati’s remarks are “contemptible, misdirected and nonsensical”.
The red berets maintained that solutions to fix South Africa’s electricity crisis are dependent on Eskom focusing on its primary mandate, which is to generate dependable and affordable electricity.
“Cleary Nyati must have drunk Andre de Ruyter’s Kool-Aid if he is willing to show such unquestioning obedience to Eskom’s current management’s folly, incompetence and corruption.”
“If he believes that localisation, industrialisation and black empowerment are synonymous with dysfunctionality, incompetence, and the failure of Eskom, he is clearly an unsalvageable puppet of the establishment white capitalist, whose entire wealth is based on the exploitation of the working class and black people,” the EFF said.
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The EFF added that the remarks made by Nyati “expose his poor understanding of the role of procurement in localisation, building industries and creating sustainable jobs”.
“Such comments from someone who has received special treatment from the establishment are a vindication that the newly-appointed board of Eskom does not have the interests of South Africa and black people in mind.”
The EFF has called on South Africans, unions, think tanks and political parties to continue with the “fight to protect Eskom and the privatisation of electricity generation”.
“If Eskom management was appointed based on who was the best person for the job, De Ruyter and Jan Oberholzer should have been fired a long time ago.”
“The idea that you can suspend power station managers for incompetence and poor performance while the CEO and COO are still in their job is foolish and racist, and is aided by people like Nyati,” the party said.
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