Johannesburg - The board of directors at power utility Eskom should be removed for failing to fix problems at the state-owned enterprise, the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions has said.
Eskom reported a R21 billion loss and over R440 billion in debt and on Wednesday board chairman and acting CEO Jabu Mabuza told members of parliament that the company was in dire financial straits.
In a statement, Cosatu said the board was only worsening Eskom's woes after two years at the helm and expressed support for conditions imposed by the government in exchange for funding.
"We do not believe that the current management team at Eskom has the capacity to achieve these conditions e.g. ensuring that outstanding debts are collected from defaulting departments, municipalities and communities," the labour federation said.
It added that its support for the Public Investment Corporation's continued investment in Eskom and prescribed assets through government bonds "is not a blank cheque for government to hide its incompetence and also using it to fix the mistakes of the criminally negligent management".
Mabuza told legislators on Wednesday that thousands of cases had been referred to the Special Investigating Unit and passed on to the National Prosecuting Authority following years of corruption, while a culture of non-payment for electricity had seen municipal debt to Eskom breaching R20 billion.