Johannesburg -
Embattled Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi has alleged that Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown is orchestrating moves to remove him from the troubled parastatal’s board.
Tsotsi, who is facing a board resolution to oust him as a director of the company in a special board meeting on Monday, said it had become clear Brown not wanted him at Eskom from the very start of her tenure last year.
“She had someone else in mind for the position, but was outvoted by her cabinet colleagues,” Tsotsi told The Sunday Independent.
He alleged Brown was “regularly caucusing” with at least three of the four suspended senior Eskom executives, and accused her of interfering directly in the commercial and operational decision-making at the power utility.
Two weeks ago, Tsotsi announced the suspensions of chief executive Tshediso Matona, finance director Tsholofelo Molefe, group executive, group capital Dan Marokane, and group executive, technology and commercial Matshela Koko. He said his board colleagues were doing Brown’s bidding in attempting to remove him.
Tsotsi is to face allegations tomorrow of “misconduct involving dishonesty”. The disciplinary charges were initially put to Tsotsi in an aborted “hearing” on Wednesday night, during which his lawyer challenged the fairness of the process and called for a postponement to next week. Tsotsi was then given until tomorrow to make representations in response, in accordance with the company’s memorandum of incorporation.
But he said the board had been attempting to remove him since its appointment in December.
“I have it on good authority the board planned to pass a vote of no confidence against me at its first scheduled sitting on February 26, but that meeting never happened. The next meeting on March 11 passed a resolution to have me removed and two days later went to the minister.” Just weeks after announcing the suspension of the executives, Tsotsi faces an attempt to remove him, for commissioning the services of consultant Nick Linnell to help run the inquiry.
Tsotsi denied the charges, saying they were orchestrated by the minister and the suspended executives to finally get rid of him in order to put the brakes on the forensic inquiry he had ordered into Eskom’s operations.
The board initially supported the inquiry and the suspensions, but suddenly rounded on Tsotsi when he presented the proposed terms of reference for the investigation. According to Tsotsi’s terms, independent audit, legal and engineering firms would probe Eskom’s financial, commercial and technical failings, a process which would be overseen by a retired judge. According to people close to the process, it was the wide range and depth of the proposed inquiry that turned the tide against the chairman.
In a notice of the meeting, which The Sunday Independent has seen, Tsotsi is accused of having procured the services of Linnell without the board’s knowledge and without following prescribed processes. “In doing so, the director crossed the line from being a non-executive director to exercising executive power without the requisite authority,” the notice says.
It goes on to allege that Linnell began the work while the board remained in the dark, and without a contract, “thus exposing the company to non-compliance |with applicable statutes and procedures”.
Tsotsi also authorised the drafting of a media statement on the inquiry, which Linnell helped draw up, again without the board’s knowledge or consent, the notice alleges. The statement would have communicated the proposed terms of reference to the public.
According to the board, this contained “numerous inaccuracies and misinformation” which could result in legal action.
The notice proposes a resolution for Tsotsi’s removal with immediate effect and must |be passed by a simple majority |of members present and entitled to vote.
Tsotsi said yesterday he had merely introduced Linnell to the board at a meeting he had called to deal with the planned inquiry.
The Sunday Independent