Brian Molefe must face justice for fraud

There will be few people feeling any sympathy for disgraced former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe, who has just lost his appeal against a high court ruling that his R11 million pension payout was illegal.

And there will be many hoping the matter does not end there.

As legal experts tell us today, there is a real prospect that Molefe could be successfully prosecuted on criminal charges, given that the court found that there was at least prima facie evidence that Molefe and Eskom had deliberately concocted a pension arrangement to pay him out money to which he was not entitled.

We hope the prosecuting authorities follow up on the court’s remarks, because Molefe should face justice for his brazen attempt to defraud taxpayers. Ultimately, taxpayers are the victims here, as Eskom is a parastatal. We also hope that all those involved in this disgraceful attempted theft – for that is what it is – will be prosecuted.

It is simply not enough that Molefe be forced to pay back the money – there must also be criminal consequences.

The other benefit of such a prosecution would be that a clear and chilling message would be sent to all other senior parastatal managers that these stateowned enterprises are not their private piggy banks.

The Molefe case, even as it stands now, shows that our judicial system is still our last, strong, line of defence against corruption.

However, it is comforting to see that under President Cyril Ramaphosa, efforts are under way to repair the damage done at Eskom by people like Molefe and others involved in state capture.

But South Africans are all still paying – through soaring electricity prices and through the spectre of looming loadshedding – for the criminal abuse of this vital state asset.

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