How could you sell your integrity for a place at the high table of state capture? Save SA convener Sipho Pityana asks Brian Molefe in an open letter.
Dear Brian
Under different circumstances I would have been the first to congratulate you on your appointment as a member of South Africa’s fifth Parliament, and your apparently pending ascension to a cabinet post.
But I cannot do so with a clear conscience. I have watched your rise to leadership roles with great admiration, respect and pride.
In a country that is determinedly forging a non-racial society, your competence and excellence in the many spheres of leadership have put paid to the racist notion of equating blackness with mediocrity and underperformance.
You were among those I encouraged many young people to look up to. In you I had a shining example of black leadership. Intelligent, confident, assertive and patriotic beyond question.
Allegations abound about your implication in corrupt dealings. These were easy to dismiss and I gave you the benefit of the doubt. After all, a person of your stature and reputation didn’t need corruption to aid their success, I thought.
When then-public protector Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report came up, I was shocked. When you resigned from your position as chief executive of Eskom in November I, like many others, had hoped you were being true to your word - that you were quitting “in the interests of good corporate governance” and acting “in the public interest”. I believed you. After all, you were the only director prepared to take this unusual step. My faith in you was restored once more.
Like so many people, I hoped you would give us a proper explanation of your conduct at Eskom, your handling of the Tegeta deal, or your closeness to the Gupta family - all of which were exposed, in disturbing detail, in Madonsela’s report.
I hoped you would have a more credible explanation for the amount of time you spent at the Gupta compound, rather than that embarrassing excuse about the “Saxonwold shebeen”.
I felt the tears you shed at your press conference were real, and that you deserved sympathy and support. I was gullible because I was clinging to the Brian of yesteryear - a beacon of black leadership. Even then, I remained steadfastly hopeful that you would use the time to reflect on how you became embroiled in the web of corruption.
It hurt many of us to see such a young man - someone with great potential - stumble, and we hoped against hope that you would use the time to get back on the right track. For me, February 23 will go down as the day I had to come to terms with the fact that the Brian Molefe I knew had turned against the values I respected and admired in him.
It will mark the day you tossed aside your integrity and foolishly opted to be a tool of state capture rather than an instrument of democracy. You have thrown away what was - until recently - an excellent track record as a young black professional who was actively involved in shaping our new
democracy, where the constitution is sacrosanct and where the resources of the state are used to advance the cause of the poor . But you’ve sold all that for a place at the high table of the forces of state capture, who have deployed you to Parliament with the ultimate intention of a cabinet role to carry out their dirty work. Your handlers are well known, thanks to the former public protector.
Can it really be you amid these people, Brian? Or is it a dreadful nightmare?
Your appointment as an MP is proof that the Zuma administration does not punish corrupt conduct - it rewards it.
You’ve come a long way, Brian: from chief director in the National Treasury, to head of the PIC, chief executive of Eskom, MP and now possibly Deputy Minister - some even say Minister - of Finance. It’s unfortunate that you had to get there through the back door.
Yours sincerely
Sipho M Pityana
Convener of the Save SA campaign