Brian Molefe still hasn’t paid back his Eskom pension

Four years after Brian Molefe was ordered to pay back the money he received from the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund (EPPF), the power utility’s former CEO hasn’t paid a cent.

In November 2016, Molefe retired from Eskom with a R30-million early retirement package. He was then reinstated as CEO in May 2017.

In January 2018, the High Court ruled that Molefe’s reinstatement at Eskom was invalid and his early retirement package was unlawful.

Molefe was ordered to repay the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund (EPPF) the money he’d already received, which was around R11-million. However, the Daily Maverick reports Molefe has not yet given any of the money back.

“Mr. Molefe has not yet repaid monies to the EPPF,” the pension fund told the publication.

Since being told to repay the money in 2018, Molefe applied for leave to appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court. Both applications were dismissed.

Trade union Solidarity then laid criminal charges against Molefe in an attempt to get him to return a portion of the pension payout.

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State capture report

Molefe was one of several high-profile figures fingered in the first part of Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s state capture report. It looked into Molefe’s tenure as CEO of Transnet.

Referring to the Gupta-owned newspaper The New Age (TNA), the report recommended the country’s law enforcement agencies look into prosecuting Molefe over his role in suspect contracts between Transnet and TNA – “particularly his misrepresentation that some of those contracts were partnerships when they were sponsorships”.

Along with Mboniso Sigonyela, general manager of Transnet Group Corporate and Public Affairs during Brian Molefe’s tenure, they spent millions of rands on advertising in TNA.

“From the above evidence, it is apparent that Mr Molefe and Mr Sigonyela were directly facilitating the use of public funds for TNA spending,” the report says. 

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Additional reporting by Earl Coetzee