Molefe must still pay back pension fund millions, ConCourt rules

Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe has lost his bid to appeal a high court decision which held him responsible for paying back a portion of the R30 million pension he received from the embattled power utility.

This follows a court order on July 29 suggesting that Molefe’s application for leave to appeal should be dismissed as it had “no reasonable prospects of success”.

In April 2019, Molefe lost his court bid to appeal a January high court judgment that ordered him to pay back part of the pension he received from Eskom. He has been ordered to pay back about R11 million that he received.

He has avoided paying back any funds due to his multiple appeals, but this dismissal at the apex court sees his luck finally running out. He petitioned the Constitutional Court to have his appeal heard in June.

His defeat at the ConCourt follows the North Gauteng High Court finding that it was of the view there was no prospect that another court would come to a different conclusion on any of the grounds of appeal raised by Molefe. The court also ordered Molefe to pay the costs “including the cost of two counsel who were so employed”.

This appeal followed the January 2018 judgment finding that Molefe had used the Eskom pension fund to personally enrich himself.

However, this is not the end of Molefe’s legal battles, with trade union Solidarity releasing a statement at the end of June indicating that it was planning to privately prosecute Molefe.

“Solidarity will also ask advocate Gerrie Nel of AfriForum’s private prosecuting unit to institute private prosecution against former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe. This comes in the wake of the National Prosecuting Authority not having started prosecution following criminal charges Solidarity had brought against Molefe. Solidarity also plans to bring an application to have the SAA placed in business rescue,” said Dirk Hermann, the union’s chief operating officer.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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