Zola Tsotsi must go
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) calls on the Public Enterprise Minister Lynne Brown to fire Eskom Board Chairperson Zola Tsotsi as the majority of the board wants him out (see City Press report).
Business Day recently reported that Zola Tsotsi was accused of interfering in operational matters and taking over executive responsibilities.
"The NUM feels vindicated when we objected to the reappointment of Zola Tsotsi as Eskom Board Chairperson. We call on the Minister For Public Enterprise Lynne Brown to fire this Non-Executive chairman operating as an Executive Chairman. We also urge him to do the right thing to resign before he is removed by force by our members," said Frans Baleni, NUM General Secretary.
The NUM has warned before that the state of corporate governance was degenerating at Eskom.
In our last NUM NEC statement issued on the 23rd of February 2015, we called on the Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown to reign on the chairpersons of some government entities to conduct themselves in cost effective manner than spend money on activities that do not add value to Eskom `s business objectives such as unnecessary international trips.
The NUM reiterates its initial position to push for a "Save Eskom Campaign". Part of the campaign will be to ensure that the voices of the workers are embraced in any turn-around strategy by the government. We believe that it will be a grave mistake for workers not to be consulted in generating the improvement of the parastatal.
So long, as the workers are pushed to the margins and their experiences and knowledge is relegated to the gutter as is the case currently nothing sustainable will emerge out of any intervention.Thus, we urge the Public Enterprise Minister Lynne Brown to break the tradition of corporate tyranny by consulting with workers at Eskom in order to get a sense of problems and solutions thereof.
Statement issued by Frans Baleni: NUM General Secretary, March 23 2015
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