Pretoria - The North Gauteng High Court will on Tuesday hear an application by former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe to appeal a judgment that ordered him to pay back part of the pension he received from the power utility.
In January, the court gave Molefe 10 days to pay back about R11m of the R30m he had received from the power utility.
The money was paid after Molefe's resignation in November 2016, following the Public Protector's damning state capture which report implicated him in irregular conduct.
He had been in his position since September 2015, but news of the massive payment only emerged after his reappointment in May 2017.
Trade union Solidarity had approached the high court last year to declare Molefe's controversial pension unlawful.
The head of Labour Law Services at Solidarity, Anton van der Bijl, said the union would oppose the application.
“[Tuesday] is merely Molefe’s attempt to postpone the inevitable. However, we believe that the judge will not delay justice by granting the appeal,” Van der Bijl.
Molefe has maintained that he was entitled to the money, as he had not resigned from the troubled power utility but had taken an early retirement.
At a previous hearing, Molefe stated that the court erred in ruling that he had resigned, and that Eskom admitted under oath that his departure from the power utility was "pursuant and linked to the early retirement agreement concluded with Eskom".
Molefe's second appointed was rescinded by the Eskom board after the entity, and former minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown, came under fire from opposition parties and lawmakers in parliament.
Eskom executive support manager Anton Minnaar had attempted to justify Molefe’s pension windfall, telling Parliament’s inquiry into state capture that the former executive had helped defeat load shedding.
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