While the Congress of South African Trade Unions agrees that former Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga has the legal right to take his former employer to court for unfairly dismissing him, the amount that he is demanding - R85 million - is massively excessive.

We should not condemn anyone who is aggrieved and wants to take their case to court, but his action send a terrible message to the public - that it is OK for the elite to get millions of rands in packages after resigning or being fired, regardless of how well they have performed.

Eskom under his leadership failed to resolve the deep problems it confronted after the then government refused to give it the money it needed in the late 1990s for the construction of new power stations. Maroga had plenty of time to tackle this problem and turn the situation around, but abjectly failed to do so and presided over the disastrous ‘load-shedding' power cuts of 2008.

Even if he can prove that the Eskom Board forced him to resign, how then can he believe that he is entitled to such a huge sum, which is reported to include R1 million for a "dedicated driver and protector for his family", R500 000 for security at his home and R1 million for "personal assistance".

This is yet another example of the culture of self-entitlement and greed, which has plagued the business sector and has been invading the public service as well. Eskom is still a public utility, with a mandate to provide power to all South Africans as efficiently and cheaply as possible. It is not, and must never become a business to maximise profits and a way of enriching a small elite of executives.

Statement issued by Patrick Craven, Congress of South African Trade Unions national spokesperson, January 26 2010

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