Johannesburg – The governing African National Congress has lashed out at Eskom and Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown's "incoherent" presentations in Parliament, and urged government to "act decisively" on the matter.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the latest version on the Brian Molefe saga, that he had never resigned from Eskom but was in fact on unpaid leave, contradicted Molefe's statement when he announced his resignation from the power utility late last year.
"According to the incoherent version tabled today, Mr Molefe had never resigned from Eskom but rather was on unpaid leave. This is in direct contradiction to Mr Molefe's own statement when he left the utility, and where he said Minister Brown's letter dated 30th November 2016 where she approved the appointment of Mr Koko as acting Group CEO following 'the resignation of Mr Brian Molefe'," Kodwa said in a statement.
"On the strength of the representations from Minister Brown and Mr Molefe, the ANC acceded to his nomination as member of Parliament. Not only are these latest developments disingenuous to say the least, they amount to perjury.
The ANC calls on government and Parliament to act decisively to deal with this irrational and untenable situation."
Brown and Eskom board members, including chairman Ben Ngubane, faced tough questions from MPs about circumstances around Molefe's departure from the power utility and his subsequent return last week.
Brown told the committee that she had recently learnt that Molefe had not resigned from Eskom last year, but in fact had asked for early retirement, hence the board's proposal to pay him R30 million in a pension settlement.
She added that she would not oppose the opposition's court application for Molefe's reappointment by Eskom board to be set aside.