11 November 2009
editorial
Johannesburg — AND so the fallout from the latest Eskom saga starts. Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor , also deputy chairwoman of the Cabinet's economic and employment cluster, has angrily dismissed fears that the Eskom board's emasculation will make it harder for the parastatal to raise foreign capital for its much- needed capacity expansion.
Pandor is wrong on this count. What was always going to be a tortuous process in the current economic environment has just been made immeasurably more difficult, with possible implications for the local bond market, but then she could hardly be expected to agree lest the negative effect on potential foreign investment become self-perpetuating.
She is right, though, albeit inadvertently, in stating that SA should not "turn a boardroom problem into a national economic crisis". Yet that is exactly what the government has done -- whether by commission or omission is unclear -- by not giving the Eskom board its full support when it was faced with a choice between the competing visions of its CEO and chairman, and opted for the latter.
When CEO Jacob Maroga offered to resign at a board meeting last Wednesday, and the board accepted the offer in an effective vote of no confidence, that should have been the end of it. The Eskom board is mandated by an act of Parliament, which means that it is where the buck stops.
The role of the government, as sole shareholder represented by Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan , is to ensure that the board is properly appointed and sticks to its mandate. It is not to intervene for reasons of political expedience or any other, and it is not to usurp the board's role by micro-managing its affairs, even in a crisis.
Hogan's initial handling of Maroga's falling out with the board was essentially correct, with no attempt to second-guess its conclusion that he had run out of ideas to turn Eskom around, or contest chairman Bobby Godsell's detailed list of "unfinished business", which points to a chronic failure of senior management under Maroga's leadership.
Yet, at some point after Maroga's relationship with the board broke down and he reneged on a verbal agreement to resign, the government's support for the board's decision vanished. We do not know precisely what occurred to cause this, or what exactly Godsell was told by President Jacob Zuma when they met at the weekend. The upshot, however, is that it is Godsell's resignation that was accepted by the Department of Public Enterprises rather than Maroga's, and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is because Zuma failed to provide the support Godsell was entitled to expect. In resigning the way he did, Godsell has shown exactly the leadership for which he was invited on to the Eskom board in the first place.
This is not the first time Hogan has been hung out to dry by her party and so-called comrades in government. It happened when she was health minister and took a principled stand on the government's extraordinary decision to refuse the Dalai Lama permission to visit the country for fear of offending China, now our biggest trading partner. And it almost happened a few weeks ago when senior officials of the ruling party, including Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, tried to interfere with the Transnet board's decision to suspend Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama.
Good sense prevailed in the case of Gama, but not before Hogan's authority was undermined seriously. That too appeared to be a case of misguided African solidarity, with unsupported accusations of racism flying thick and fast and Zuma failing to take a stand in support of board independence.
It is clear, both from the undeniable breakdown of Maroga's relationship with the Eskom board and the beleaguered tone that marked the strategy document he produced, that his situation is untenable. He may be able to get away with agreeing to resign, then denying it, but how will he work with a board that has clearly lost confidence in him? More to the point, does the government really want an embattled and dysfunctional Eskom leadership making the kind of crucial decisions that will have to be made in the coming months and years to ensure the lights stay on?
Hogan, too, has been hopelessly compromised by Zuma's limp-wristed leadership. She clearly has no authority in the ruling party. She should consider stepping down while she still has some dignity.
By resigning, Bobby Godsell has shown exactly the leadership he was first invited into the Eskom chair for in the first place
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"OUR country badly needs clear leadership. "
Oh.
What do you know about "leadership"?
[Or it it your contention that those natives - the people of Shaka - cannot offer "leadership"?]
.
" .. deciding who should be the CEO of .. corporation, and declare that the mining industry must be nationalised. .."
We knew it: Rhodies would protect the ill-gotten native plunder!
Remember this: As far as the long-suffering patriotic natives of Shaka's lands are concerned, the economy of their lands has been in a perpetual depression ever since the vile rhodie defiled it by stepping foot on it.
As such, drastic measures are called for.
Do you remember the measures Pres Obama took when he assumed office amidst one of the worst recessions the USA - and the world - ever faced? CEOs were not spared and corporations were essentially nationalized.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. ...
.
"SA deserves better than this."
If you don't like it in South Africa, you don't have to stay a moment longer.
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