Eskom responds to unlawful DA protest at its Megawatt Park offices
20 January 2016
The Democratic Alliance (DA) today [Wednesday] unlawfully protested at Eskom’s Megawatt Park head office in Sunninghill.
The group arrived at Eskom without prior approval. They then proceeded to occupy the reception area and demanded to see Eskom Group Chief Executive Mr Brian Molefe.
Mr Molefe thereafter accepted a petition from the DA’s Natasha Mazzone and Kevin Mileham. However, Eskom wishes to condemn this kind of action in the strongest terms possible. Ms Mazzone and Mr Mileham as Members of Parliament will know the laws relating to demonstration, protests and handing over of memorandums. None of these were followed. All were ignored.
In their petition the DA wants all bonuses paid to employees since 2008 to be returned. These demands are frivolous and preposterous.
Their petition claims that “the Eskom monopoly has dumped South Africa in a crisis through incompetence and mismanagement”. They also demand that all future bonuses must be placed on hold until we emerge from “this crisis”.
Eskom has not implemented load shedding in the past 165 days; except for 2 hours and 20 minutes on September 14, 2015.
Our employees remain committed and dedicated to deliver on Eskom’s mandate of powering South Africa.
This action by the DA was unnecessary. It was cheap politicking and electioneering of the worst kind. More so because the issues raised in the petition are the same issues that have been raised in Parliament, which have been addressed several times.
But most alarming is the fact that some of the identify numbers of the signatories to the memorandum are nonsensical and do not exist (eg. 780567…, 870431…,723652… - see attachment). At least one cell phone number is the call centre number of the Financial Services Board.
Some signatures appear to have been executed by the same person and the petitioners managed to sign the petition in one page in first name alphabetical order.
Eskom will be conducting a forensic investigation to determine the authenticity of the signatories and the possibility that fraud may have been committed.
Issued by Eskom, 20 January 2016
