Pretoria - Outspoken former statistician-general and former head of Statistics South Africa Dr Pali Lehohla insists any plans to turnaround the fortunes of beleaguered power utility Eskom would not work, as long as the entity was led by CEO Andre de Ruyter.
Interviewed on eNCA today regarding the IOL story published a month ago, where he said former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko was better placed to turnaround the power utility, Lehohla said an engineer was what Eskom needed.
Lehohla said: “If you read the (IOL) article, I said bring somebody who is an engineer and Matshela Koko is such one who has served us at Eskom. If you find something wrong with him, arrest him. That is what has happened. Charge, prosecute and incarcerate him if you find him guilty. He is on record saying the law must take its course.
“So, there isn’t anything inconsistent with what I said in the paper.”
Last month, Lehohla insisted that a person who was not a qualified engineer could not run Eskom.
“Eskom is an engineering-cum-economic behemoth. It is an engineering animal and an economic animal. At the moment, it is not led by engineers, nor by economists. So, you cannot expect it to perform. Instead, it is led by politicians and accountants and they are trying to understand the logic of Eskom.
“Accountants cannot understand the logic of Eskom. It needs economists to understand that logic and they must translate that from an engineer’s perspective into an economic vehicle. Now, an accountant is trying to translate the politician perspective of Eskom,” he had said at the time.
On Friday, Lehohla said it was ridiculous to have someone who was not an engineer running Eskom, even with a new board.
“Well, they got it wrong if the man at the helm is not an engineer who has to get an interpretation of engineering matters. It is a wrong thing. Many say (the new board) it’s a turnaround, a turnaround run by a person who is not an expert in the subject matter is going to fail. He needs an interpreter all the time,” said Lehohla.
“You cannot have a brain surgery presided over by someone who is not a brain surgeon operating on your head. De Ruyter said he should be given engineers and he would lead them. How on earth can a chief justice be somebody who is not a lawyer? This is absolutely, incredibly ridiculous. I still insist that we need an engineer at the executive of Eskom, because Eskom is an engineering system.”
Lehohla said that when he mentioned Koko, he did not specifically mean the former CEO, who has been arrested and charged for corruption, was the only person capable of turning around the power utility.
“I wasn’t saying Koko specifically. He, himself, has said he wouldn’t ever go back to Eskom. I was talking a metaphor of an engineer, and that is the context in which I was mentioning Koko,” he said.
The former Eskom boss, Koko, was on Thursday granted R300 000 bail following a brief appearance before the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga, on charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Koko appeared alongside his wife Mosima Koko, his stepdaughters Koketso Aren and Thato Choma, as well as Hlupheka Sithole and Watson Seswai, in connection to a R2.8 billion corruption matter.
Sindisiwe Seboka, of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate (ID), explained that the charges related to the building of the Kusile power station.
“In 2009, Eskom contracted with Alstom to undertake the control and instrumentation contract at Kusile power station. Alstom did not perform. Eskom engineers recommended that Siemens be appointed. The State alleges that (former) group executive (for) technology and commercial, Koko, influenced and abused his position to have Siemens, Billfinger-Mauell and ABB invited to bid in a closed tender,” Seboka said.
She said Billfinger-Mauell dropped out of the tender process and ABB South Africa was awarded the multimillion-rand control and instrumentation (C&I) contract in 2015.
“The State alleges that it then resulted in ABB South Africa appointing a company owned by Thabo Mokwena to provide skills development and industrialisation work to the value of R96 million, excluding VAT.
“In 2016, four variation orders were granted to ABB South Africa by Sithole to provide extra work not covered in the initial multibillion-rand C&I contract. The State alleges that money flowed from the multibillion-rand contract and that this was the first attempt to launder money on behalf of Koko,” the ID added.
From 2015 to 2017, several contracts were awarded, four of which form part of the matter involving Impulse International. It was providing Eskom and Rotek Industries with SAP work packages, specialised engineers and managers to oversee the interphase contractors, among other functions. The State further alleges that a portion of the contracts were used to grease palms.
In the court papers, it is alleged that money laundering vehicles were set up by Coetzee to siphon money from Impulse International to benefit the Koko family.
Seboka said the arrest was as a result of joint stakeholder engagements between the ID, Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit.
Seboka confirmed to IOL that Koko, Sithole, Seswai and Mokwena were each granted R300 000 bail.
IOL