ANA reports that Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown on Wednesday told a parliamentary inquiry she was convinced that former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe had resigned from the state-owned power utility.  

Accordingly, his early retirement package was not only irregular but possibly contrived after his departure.  Brown told the public enterprises committee conducting a probe into Eskom that she had believed Molefe’s departure from the company was a resignation, until she saw newspaper reports in April this year that he had received a R30 million pension payout.  In a prepared statement to the committee, Brown indicated:  “I was surprised to discover that the board had concluded an agreement with Molefe for an early retirement, but did not consider it to be irregular at that point.  Subsequent events have persuaded me that the ‘early retirement agreement’ was not only irregular but possibly an ex post facto fabrication.”  Brown related that at a meeting with Molefe she had used the term ‘resignation’ and he had not corrected her.  Molefe was grilled on the subject when he appeared before the inquiry on Tuesday.  He resisted all suggestions that his announcement that he was leaving Eskom a year ago read like a resignation.

• Read this report in full at The Citizen
• Read too, Brown says Molefe resigned and did not seek early retirement, at Business Report
• And also, Molefe: I did not resign from Eskom, I took early retirement, at EWN

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page