A Shocking Return

- Gabisile Ngcobo

POKING a finger in a live electrical socket is about all that would have guaran­ teed South Africans a big­ ger shock than the news of Brian Molefe’s return to the CEO’s office at Eskom.

The man who wept open­ ly as he stepped down as Eskom chief exe cutive in November after being fin­ gered in Thuli Madonsela’s State of Cap­ture report returned to Megawatt Park to widespread outrage this week.

And this after public enterprises mini­ ster Lynne Brown objected to him get­ting a whopping R30­million pension payout for his 18 months as Eskom CEO. Rather go back and serve out the re­ mainder of your five­year contract, she said – and so he did.

But analysts say there could be more to Molefe’s return than bureaucratic convenience.

SO WHY IS MOLEFE BACK?

Molefe (50) has apparently returned to grease the wheels for deals like the one the Gupta family’s coal company has with Eskom, says William Gumede, associate professor at the School of Gov­ ernance at Wits University.

The State of Capture report revealed a close relationship between Molefe, the Guptas and their company Tegeta Explo­ ration and Resources, an Eskom coal supplier. The report, released in 2016, raised questions about whether the Es­ kom leadership stretched procurement rules to award a multimillion­rand coal contract to Tegeta.

The Eskom­Tegeta deal is still under the spotlight in Parliament for contra­ vening supply chain management pro­cedures.

Gumede says he suspects Molefe was also brought back to resurrect the R1­trillion nuclear energy deal SA had with Russia, which the Western Cape High Court has declared invalid, order­ ing the government to review it.

Energy minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has decided not to appeal the ruling and the process would now start from scratch.