Mpumalanga SACP calls on Eskom board to quit

The South African Communist Party in Mpumalanga has waded into the state capture brawl, calling for an urgent judicial commission of inquiry so that those who are guilty of wrongdoing face the full might of the law.

The provincial executive committee of the SACP also demands that the Eskom board should resign in the light of their reappointment of the utility’s CEO, Brian Molefe.

SACP provincial secretary Bonakele Majuba said a judicial probe into the State of Capture report by former public protector Thuli Madonsela would help to ensure that those implicated in the report – including Molefe, associates of President Jacob Zuma the Gupta family and Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane – be brought to book.

“The so-called Premier League and the Guptas are becoming a cancer that we must collectively fight against to ensure that we renew the revolutionary movement and place the national democratic revolution back on track,” said Majuba.

Majuba accused Eskom board chairperson Ben Ngubane of having “imported governance decay” into Eskom from the SABC, where he was previously a board chairperson. He said Ngubane must be held accountable, along with the Eskom board, for the irregular reappointment of Molefe.

He added that this appointment “must be reversed”. “Molefe was hurriedly smuggled into parliament by manipulative methods earlier this year. He received several salaries as an MP and no longer was an Eskom employee. He was reappointed without due processes followed,” Majuba said.

The Eskom board’s fitness to hold office was in question. “The board must be removed. Its display of arrogance fuels the erosion of our people’s confidence in the ANC-led government, with negative consequences for our ANC-headed alliance as a whole,” Majuba said.

The SACP rejected the proposed nuclear deal and welcomed the recent court ruling to nullify the consultation process around it.

“We reject this secret deal because it is first and foremost very costly. Secondly, its lack of transparency leaves a bitter taste in the midst of widespread cancerous corruption,” Majuba said.

Several countries, including Russia and the United States, were interested in entering into a nuclear energy deal with South Africa. There were fears within the country that such a deal could follow the same route as the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal that was embroiled in corruption allegations.

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