EFF STATEMENT ON THE APPOINTMENT OF STEPHEN MEIJERS AS COO OF ROTEKS INDUSTRIES
Monday, 17 August 2020
The Economic Freedom Fighters notes the appointment of Stephen Meijers as the new Chief Operations Officer of Rotek Industries, a subsidiary of Eskom. Rotek Industries is involved in almost every aspect of the Eskom electricity value chain and is, therefore, a very key player for the future of electricity generation in this country.
A company such as Rotek needs to be safeguarded at all costs and kept clear of political manipulations by the ruling elite that may endanger our future energy needs. However, what has been happening at Eskom over the past few months, since Andre de Ruyter was appointed as CEO, can best be characterised as a shameless takeover of Eskom and companies linked to Eskom by a group of white friends.
Stephen Meijers is the former CEO of ELB Engineering Services, a company that has had contracts with Eskom at the Medupi plant in particular. The company was involved in constructing coal feed conveyers at Medupi, as far back as 2012, and therefore, solid relations between ELB and Eskom have long been established.
Further, Meijers led the ELB project to install material handlings conveyor for SASOL at Impumelelo Colliery. At that time, de Ruyter was at SASOL, as a Group General Manager responsible for chemical businesses, and worked directly with Meijers. Mr de Ruyter has a long track record of working with Mr Meijers therefore, and it seems as if this relationship did not bother those who took the decision to employ Meijers.
What complicates matters even worse is the fact that Meijers was kicked out of ELB towards the end of 2019 because he had led the company to major financial losses. He left so much mess at ELB, to the extent that the company had to be placed on business rescue in April 2020.
It. therefore. boggles the mind that Eskom should entrust such a man with such critical responsibilities as engendering the philosophy of maintenance of Eskom power plants. Earlier this year. just as ELB was placed under business rescue, Andre de Ruyter announced plans to appoint a COO for Rotek. who will be responsible for strengthening the maintenance at Eskom power stations. We have every reason to believe that de Ruyter was already planning to create a job for his friend, and used the crisis of maintenance at Eskom as an excuse for bringing in a failed executive in the form of Meijers.
So since we have established that de Ruyter knows Meijers very well, we are interested in knowing if he sat on the panel that interviewed Meijers or not. If he did sit on that panel. did he declare his prior working relationship with Meijers? If he did not. then the whole recruitment process is a sham and should be dismissed as such.
Eskom is being used in the most villainous of forms to recapture the State for the interests of a tiny group of white racists, and an even tinier group of obedient blacks, such as Ramaphosa. whose only interest is lining up their pockets. We must resist the re-emergence of white arrogance under the leadership of Ramaphosa, and we must fight against the renewed attempts to capture the State by white criminal elements.
Statement issued by the EFF, 17 August 2020
ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS
