Siseko Njobeni
5 November 2009
Johannesburg — A WEEK after Eskom's board asked CEO Jacob Maroga to resign, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan told Parliament yesterday that Maroga should not shoulder the blame for Eskom's problems alone.
Hogan's apparent leap to Maroga's defence is in contrast to the board's wish for Maroga's resignation. The statement was also Hogan's first public comment on the matter.
Hogan told Parliament that Maroga should not shoulder the blame for Eskom's problems alone.
It also emerged yesterday that President Jacob Zuma may have intervened on Maroga's behalf.
But Presidency officials denied Zuma's involvement, saying that it was for Hogan and the Eskom board to handle.
Had Zuma intervened, it would have been inconsistent with his stance about two months ago when he distanced himself from the controversy surrounding the appointment of a new Transnet CEO and comments on this by Cabinet members.
A source said last week the Eskom board had asked Maroga to resign from the position he has held since 2007. Reasons for the move and Maroga's response are still unclear.
A report on Sake24 said Zuma intervened to prevent Maroga being sacked, and that Hogan and other members of the Cabinet were putting pressure on Eskom board members to change their decision about Maroga.
Eskom and the Department of Public Enterprises refused again yesterday to clarify Maroga's situation. Attempts to get comment from Eskom chairman Bobby Godsell have so far failed.
Maroga was scheduled to talk last night at an African National Congress Houghton branch networking session on the state of energy supply in SA and the effect of proposed tariff hikes on consumers. However, he did not attend.
With Karima Brown and Sapa
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