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Johannesburg – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has called for the entire board of Eskom to follow suit after chairperson Ben Ngubane's decision to resign.
The union said in a statement on Tuesday the board "is a disgrace to the power utility and the government. “We need men and women with integrity who will also care about the well-being of the employees who are the only source of ‘lights on’ agenda,” said NUM.
READ: Eskom board shocked by Ngubane’s resignation, expects new chair next week
Eskom board spokesperson Khulani Qoma told Fin24 on Tuesday that the board was shocked to hear about Ngubane’s resignation, and an annual general meeting will be held next Friday to appoint a new chairperson. The new appointment is subject to approval by Cabinet.
Public Enterprise Minister Lynne Brown appointed board member Zethembe Khoza as interim chairperson.
NUM's national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu told Fin24 that the board has done nothing good for the company. “It has been chaos after chaos and the employees at Eskom can’t take it… It is for the good of Eskom that they resign.”
Mammburu said that the minister should include all stakeholders, including unions in the event of appointing a new board. “They can’t continue to undermine stakeholders like unions when they appoint CEOs and board members. We continue to be undermined,” he said.
“Eskom has been appointing CEO after CEO, there is no stability at Eskom. We want to see stability in Eskom in terms of leadership.”
Mammburu also said the union supports a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture, in which both former chief executive Brian Molefe and Ben Ngubane have been implicated.
Ngubane has been implicated in the GuptaLeaks saga, once due to a failed bid to secure a lucrative oil concession in the Central African Republic (CAR) as well as in the revelations about the capture of Eskom.
ALSO READ: Ngubane’s resignation won’t exonerate him – DA
The Democratic Alliance said that Ngubane’s resignation will not exonerate him from a Parliamentary inquiry into the power utility.
DA member of parliament Natasha Mazzone said that Ngubane would have to account for the break down of governance at Eskom.
Trade union Solidarity on Tuesday welcomed the resignation of Ngubane.
Deon Reyneke, deputy general secretary of Solidarity, regards this resignation and Brian Molefe’s non-reappointment as steps in the right direction, but in his view there were more places within Eskom that needed a good clean-up.
“We hope this step constitutes the beginning of a new accountability within Eskom, since the board has made a few strange decisions lately. One big eyesore remains Molefe’s possible reappointment and his pension fund pay-out,” said Reyneke.
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