Judgment today on Molefe’s R30 million pension

Eskom’s beleaguered former CEO Brian Molefe will hear today if he must pay back the portion of the R30 million pension he allegedly received unlawfully.

A full bench of the High Court in Pretoria will deliver judgment in an application by the Democratic Alliance and trade union Solidarity for an order to set aside decisions relating to Molefe’s early retirement payout and brief reinstatement and to force him to pay back over R11 million he had already received.

Molefe opposed the application, insisting that he had never resigned and was entitled to return to his post.

Solidarity argued that it would make a mockery of the law and would “do violence” to common sense and logic to accept Molefe’s version.

He announced in November 2016 that he was stepping down to further good governance at Eskom in the light of serious allegations against him in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report.

He spent a brief stint as an MP before Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown last year reinstated him, but Eskom finally dismissed him a month later.

In court, he insisted he and the Eskom board had been under the belief that he was entitled to a R30 million early retirement payout and that his “resignation” had therefore been invalid.

The DA argued Molefe’s retirement was clearly unlawful.

The party maintained Molefe had told the nation he was going, but told no one he was trying to get the vast amount of money.

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