NUMSA denies that all workers were paid out generous bonuses at Eskom
26 July, 2017
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) denies that all workers at Eskom received an average bonus of R88 000 each. City Press reported on Sunday that although Eskom incurred massive losses last month, “it still managed to pay each employee an average bonus of R88 000”. We have spoken to our members at Eskom and we can confirm that not all our members received such generous bonus payouts as claimed by the reports. Our members were paid out bonuses based on an internal system and the amounts, in some cases, were much lower than what has been reported.
Furthermore as NUMSA we are shocked that managers at Eskom received such generous rewards in the face of poor financial performance and gross wastage by the State Owned Entity. Eskom announced last week that its profits had dropped by 83% and that R3 billion rand had been spent through irregular expenditure.
The stench of corruption surrounding the SOE’s top management continues to linger. Its former CEO, Brian Molefe’s re-appointment and subsequent removal, sparked a national scandal, but he was remunerated with a R2.1million short-term performance bonus. At the same time, the Eskom board allegedly deliberately manipulated the pension calculation in order to guarantee him a R30 million rand payout. The acting CEO Matshela Koko who is facing disciplinary action following allegations of corruption, received a R1.4m bonus and its chief financial officer, Anoj Singh, who has also been implicated in the Gupta leaked e-mails, received R1.8 million.
Eskom, like many SOE’ has been in crisis for a long time. It has been plagued by numerous scandals including the payment of R266 million to Trillian without any proof of work done for the power utility. A report by Denton’s revealed that Eskom wasted about R200 million over two years by failing to negotiate proper discounts with diesel suppliers. Furthermore the Public Protector found that the Tegeta coal deal was irregular because the Gupta’s received a R600 million pre-payment for coal from Eskom, which allowed them to use the money to buy Optimum Coal mine.
Eskom is clearly being looted by the state and crony capitalists. As long as the ANC government is paralyzed by cronyism and corruption, the rot in the SOE’s will continue. As NUMSA we re-iterate our demand for the boards of all SOE’s including Eskom to be removed. The board is clearly incapable of acting in the best interests of South Africans as a whole. The only solution is for the entire Eskom board to be scrapped and for it to be reconstituted by members of civil society, labour, business and government. This is the first step in cleansing the SOE and introducing a culture of transparency and good governance which is desperately needed.
Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!
Statement issued by Phakamile Hlubi, NUMSA Acting spokesperson, 26 July 2017
