WESTINGHOUSE CONTINUES WITH CONTEMPT APPLICATION AGAINST ESKOM
CAPE TOWN, November 12, 2014 -- Westinghouse Electric Company filed an urgent application to the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Local Division) in Johannesburg, in which it sought, amongst other relief, the imprisonment of the two Eskom employees responsible for the implementation of the 5 September court order, in the event that key documents listed by Westinghouse in its application, were not produced within 24 hours of the granting of the order in the contempt application.
This application for contempt of court follows several unsuccessful attempts by Westinghouse legal representatives to obtain important documents relating to the tender selection process and decision-making of Eskom.
The need to launch the application urgently was driven by the timeline which has been adopted by the parties in the expedited review application, and Westinghouse required the documents by no later than Monday, 17 November 2014, in order to deal with the allegations to be made in Eskom's answering affidavit in the review application, which is due to be filed on 17 November 2014. Westinghouse will continue to exercise all of its legal rights to ensure the actions and decisions of the Eskom management during the tender process are transparent.
Westinghouse finally received critical outstanding documents as ordered by the court on 5 September 2014, less than 24 hours before the contempt of court application was scheduled to be heard.
Given Eskom's late production of the documents, it was not necessary for Westinghouse to persist in seeking the imprisonment of the two Eskom employees responsible for compliance with the 5 September Court Order, however, Westinghouse persists in seeking a declarator that Eskom was in contempt of the Court Order of 5 September, and that Eskom should pay the costs of the application on a punitive scale. This aspect of the application is no longer urgent, and will be proceeded with in the ordinary course.
Westinghouse contend that the production by Eskom of key documents called for in the contempt application, some two months after the documents were due to be produced, is tantamount to an acknowledgment by Eskom that it was indeed in contempt of the 5 September Court Order.
Westinghouse believes that if the timeline for the legal review process, as set down by the court, is adhered to by all parties there should be no delay with the replacement of the six steam generators in 2018 at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in the Western Cape.
Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation(TKY:6502), is the world's pioneering nuclear energy company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first pressurized water reactor in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa., U.S. Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants, including more than 50 percent of those in Europe.
Statement issued by Westinghouse, November 12 2014
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