We won’t be the ‘fall guy’: Board member blasts politicians over Eskom graft

Eskom board member and Business Leadership SA CEO Busisiwe Mavuso walked out of the Scopa oversight meeting with Eskom after she lambasted MPs for ANC government’s failures.

A heated exchange between Mavuso and Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa left MPs in the room visibly upset on Friday.

The meeting was held at Eskom’s headquarters in Megawatt Park, Sandton to have senior managers explain the persistent power cuts.

Tensions arose when Mavuso, sitting next to Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, answered a question from one of the MPs, saying that De Ruyter and the board wont be the “fall guy” for the state capture corruption at the power utility.

““The reality of the matter is that this is not our mess. We have been brought in to clean up the mess, but we won’t be the fall guy for the R300 billion for the Medupi and Kusile that is still not completed.

“We will avail ourself to be held accountable to ensure that Kusile is finished by 2023. Everything else, honestly, we cannot be the fall guy for this ANC-led government,” she said.

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An unhappy Hlengwa told Mavuso that De Ruyter completed his presentation for the past two days without any problems, accusing her of “theatrics” as she joined the oversight meetings much later.

“I am not going to stand for this, I am suppressing this matter…now we have been drawn into party politics.”

Mavuso replied: “It wasn’t theatrics chairperson, it was facts.”

She repeated her statements that “this is the mess of the ANC government.”

The BLSA boss was told to behave herself or excuse herself, and she stood up and left.

‘ANC mess not in dispute’

In a tweet on Friday night, Hlengwa, who is an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) MP, said the meeting was held so that Eskom bosses could account to Parliament. All Mavuso needed to do was to do the same for the “institution that the ANC deployed her to,” he said.

Government also condemned Mavuso, labeling her utterances as “regrettable and unbecoming” behaviour by a board member.

“It is unfortunate that Ms Mavuso brought party political issues in a process where SCOPA, as a committee of Parliament, was exercising its oversight responsibilities.

“The Department is giving the matter serious consideration,” read the statement issued by the Department of Public Enterprises.

South Africa was thrown into a Stage 4 level of power cuts this week, which Eskom attributed to power generation failures and the cold and wet weather.

Expert Ted Bloom said Eskom woes will only get worse, and that it needed at least two years of planning and R600 billion before it can start to fix up everything on power generation.

READ MORE: Too late for Eskom to try and fix old power stations, says expert