The shenanigans of the Gupta-owned family empire last week claimed their first real victim in Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi.
Poor ol’ Brian took a fall from his position on Friday just days after former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s investigation into state capture told of an unbecoming relationship with the family.
According to the report, aptly named “The State of Capture”, Molefe was often seen around the infamous Saxonwold compound where some of the scariest decisions were made about our future.
The report said cellphone records placed Molefe around the compound and showed that he spoke to the family patriarch, Ajay Gupta, more than 40 times in seven months.
It claimed that Molefe and Ajay, the eldest and most vocal of the Gupta brothers, made 58 telephone calls to one another between August last year and March this year.
Now there is nothing wrong with two friends exchanging pleasantries every now and then to discuss matters of national importance such as the devastating drought that has ripped our agricultural industry apart, children’s birthdays or the prospects of Kaizer Chiefs winning the Champions League.
Oakbay questions
After all, Molefe has always made it clear that his relationship with the Guptas was nobody else’s business.
But what is worrisome is that some of these calls took place at the time when Oakbay, a company that is owned by the Guptas and in which President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane held shares through his firm Mabengela Investments, used its subsidiary Tegeta Exploration & Resources to launch a determined bid to buy the Optimum coal mine and six other target firms from Glencore for a total consideration of R2.15 billion.
Amid an outcry from other bidders, who felt that Oakbay had received preferential treatment on the transaction, Molefe arrogantly and at times combatively defended the deal.
When the Competition Tribunal finally gave the deal its blessing after weeks of bickering, Molefe seemed to be vindicated and emphasised that all was above board.
That was until the report revealed that the deal was not so innocent after all and that Oakbay was paid in advance for coal to guarantee supplies to a power plant before winter.
It also emerged that Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane allegedly facilitated the company’s relocation of billions of the mine’s rehabilitation funds out of the country without following proper channels.
But when pressure mounted on how the Guptas were able to do this without being held to account, Molefe said the board and politicians, such as Zwane, should not be held responsible for the problems.
He said he took full responsibility for the Glencore deal and publicly wept before telling South Africa that his whereabouts near the Gupta compound could be blamed on a mythical shebeen that Saxonwold folks often visit to quench their thirst.
He said he could neither admit nor deny ever visiting the shebeen.
So when Molefe beat a shame-faced resignation from Eskom last Friday, it was a case of a man falling on his sword, cheating the country of one of the most efficient chief executives to come through the ranks of the ANC’s deployment policy.
It was a rare act of honour from what was until then a squeaky clean servant of the people in our scandal-prone civil service.
While some saw him as abrasive and irascible (which is not quite untrue), his arrogance helped him fight entrenched cultures that had made Eskom the laughing stock of the state-owned entities, closely behind SAA.
While others saw the global economic meltdown as the reason why Eskom was able to keep the lights on, Molefe saw an opportunity to concentrate his efforts on the maintenance of the utility’s ailing power stations.
He correctly analysed the problems at the utility and assembled a new executive management team that he believed would help him navigate through most of them.
The result was that under Molefe, the country had its first winter season without any power cuts last year since 2007.
The utility improved the performance of its power generating units and added more capacity from new build projects.
Yesterday, Eskom paid tribute to its outgoing chief executive praising him for the improved liquidity position, which saw liquid assets increasing 81.6 percent from R24.1bn a year ago to R43.8bn at the end of September, in a subdued economy.
Eskom said it now had access to adequate resources and facilities to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future.
And that happened under Molefe when many of his predecessors had spent much of their time at the helm in territorial battles with the board.
In a way Molefe is, therefore, a victim of his own doing.
His ability to turn dysfunctional state entities around and his business acumen made him so power drunk that he believed he owed the world no explanation about his relationship with shady characters like the Gupta family.
When people whispered in his ears that something was not tallying up on the Optimum Coal deal, Molefe said they should all take a hike.
Accountability
Molefe told them in no uncertain terms that he was not answerable to anyone other than Eskom’s principal shareholder - the government.
He fought with the Treasury when it tried to scrutinise Eskom’s coal power supply deals and tried to hoodwink the National Energy Regulator of SA to give him more than what he deserved.
So his dramatic downfall from the helm will now be counted among many others who left state-owned enterprises in utter disgrace.
But to his defence, Molefe did what most people in the country's civil service have failed to do.
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has clung to her position despite the chaos that has characterised her leadership of the SABC and the digital migration programme. She has reduced her bubbly deputy Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams to nothing short of an administrative secretary in the department.
Zwane remains a minister despite being implicated in what normal people could call money laundering and the mining charter, which has yet to benefit hundreds of communities in mining towns.
The less said about another recipient of the benevolence of the Gupta family, Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen, the better.
So as we mourn the unceremonious departure of what is one of the most brilliant minds ever to emerge post apartheid, we should also shudder to remember that accountability goes a long way in the public service.
It allows the country's citizens a chance to interrogate decisions that are made on their behalf.
It says that, however powerful and brilliant leaders can be, they should not leave the people behind. They should always try and be sensitive to their concerns and be willing to engage on these.
For if we fail, we will still produce dozens of other Molefes only to laugh at them when powerful charlatans use them for their own selfish needs.
And their names will forever be associated with the shambles that is our civil service.
* Sechaba ka’Nkosi’s column - The Shake-U - is published in Business Report.
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