Eskom bonus - entity operating in accountability vacuum
Eskom is operating in an accountability vacuum - billions of rands lost due to mismanagement and the resulting load shedding which cost South Africa R2 billion per day - and yet the CEO Jacob Maroga gets a 27% increase in salary.
This is the man who was warned about capacity problems long before load shedding had to be implemented (and then fired the messenger). It is the same person who knew about the mismanagement of coal supplies and procurement, but did nothing to take action. And now, it is the same person who will be asking for a further electricity price increase even though this tariff hike would have been less if Eskom had not been as wasteful with taxpayer money.
It is a very serious indictment of public enterprises and the ANC government plans toward building the so-called developmental state when a big state owned enterprise (SOE) like Eskom gives its CEO such lavish treatment, while arguing that ordinary workers cannot get the wage increase they want. The message is clear - normal business practice only extends to the workers, the elites can do whatever they want, even if it damages the economy.
It is no argument to say that the pay increase is a "decision of the board". Once again Maroga hides from accountability. Any company would have fired Maroga if he had committed the same kind of gross mismanagement within the private sector - much less given him a pat on the back and more money. Is this the message that the ANC government wants to send out - that it rewards a slapdash manager with a pay increase that is double the inflation rate? How is it remotely conceivable that such actions would lead to accountability at SOEs if their managers are rewarded for wasting money?
South Africans need to seriously ask whether this is the kind of government it deserves - one that hikes electricity prices during one of the toughest times faced by consumers - but goes out of its way to protect and reward incompetence.
The DA has already asked for a commission of enquiry into the activities of Eskom - and will be posing further questions to parliament in this regard.
Statement by Sejamothopo Motau, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of energy, September 15 2009
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