This was an eventful week by all accounts - from a stronger rand, terms of reference of state capture inquiry gazetted, to Brian Molefe ordered to pay back the money and President Jacob Zuma being “anxious” about his future.
Former Eskom chief executive Molefe was ordered by a full bench of the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday to pay back more than R10.3 million of the R30.1 m that the Eskom Provident and Pension Fund paid him within 10 days.
The legal eagles found that Eskom’s decision to waive penalties and buy Molefe an extra 13 years of service, totalling R30.1m, after only 15 months of service at the age of 50, stretched credulity and was unlawful for want of compliance with its provident and pension fund’s rules.
Read: Court orders #BrianMolefe to pay back Eskom's R11m
Meanwhile, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who led Team South Africa to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, when asked if South Africa was still proceeding with its nuclear build programme, said: “We have excess power, and we have no money for major nuclear plant building, and all of this really needs to be looked at in the current context that we are in.
Ramaphosa’s charm offensive at the WEF also saw the rand strengthening and breaching the R12 against the dollar mark for the first time since 2015.
He also revealed during an interview with BBC Hardtalk’s Zeinab Badawi that Zuma was anxious about his future. Badawi had remarked that Zuma should resign immediately if South Africa’s economic prospects were to improve.
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He still has about 18 months left to serve in his presidency until the next national election in 2019.
“A new dawn is on the horizon, we are now involved in a new era in South Africa. There’s a new leadership (of the ANC) and this new leadership is just barely a month old in its position. We are dealing with this matter and obviously the key matter everyone wants to see addressed is the tenure that President Zuma still has to serve out,” replied Ramaphosa.
In other news, the terms of reference for the state capture inquiry were gazetted on Thursday and would, among other things, probe whether members of the national executive or boards of state-owned entities have been bribed to accept certain posts, in particular, the allegations by former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas and Vytjie Mentor that they were offered cabinet posts by members of the controversy-prone Gupta family, Zuma’s personal friends.