‘Hell yes, you must govern’

PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan has blasted those who turned South Africa’s Eskom leadership crisis into a political and racial football, saying it was not helpful to have problems at the country’s most crucial parastatal ‘hijacked by forces who are just trying to push a political agenda’.

Hogan broke her silence on the ructions at the power utility for the first time in the National Assembly on Thursday, just hours after Eskom acting board chairman Mpho Makwana announced in Johannesburg that CEO Jacob Maroga’s resignation was valid.Hogan said in the wake of the ‘turbulent time’, she wanted to assure the board of Eskom and other state-owned enterprises that they had full authority to steer their companies without inappropriate interference.’We say to them: Hell, yes, you must govern,’ she said. ‘The integrity of a board is paramount.’ She also acknowledged for the first time that the Presidency had become involved in trying to mediate a way out of the ‘deadlock’.She explained that the decision to maintain an information blackout had been taken as making public statements would only have ‘heightened tensions and embroiled the government itself’ in the fiasco.’Eskom is probably the most important parastatal in South Africa and it does have problems, but we cannot allow these problems to be fundamentally hijacked by forces who are just trying to push a political agenda which has no relation to the actual issues that Eskom is trying to address,’ she said, without naming the Black Management Forum, the ANC Youth League or the Young Communist League, which had claimed racist motives were fuelling moves to get rid of Maroga, and criticised former board chairman Bobby Godsell, who resigned on Monday.’It is very disturbing to note that this matter also became a racial football, targeting certain individuals whom I believe have integrity and only the best interests of the country at heart,’ Hogan said.’Such racial slurs, particularly directed at Mr Bobby Godsell, the former chair of the board, goes against what we fought for and codified in Kliptown, and is also against the core values of our society and our constitution – especially, the value and importance of non-racialism,’ she said, thanking Godsell for his ‘exemplary leadership in the last 15 months’.Hogan also lashed out at those who had criticised the government for intervening behind the scenes to resolve the impasse, including opposition parties that had expressed concerns over breaches of corporate governance principles.But she also made clear that the government would take a firm hand in ensuring the country’s ailing parastatals were properly run.She said the ‘disturbing’ politicisation of the management stand-off ‘provided undue pressure through a never-ending stream of public commentary that sometimes had no basis in fact or law, and only served to inflame and exaggerate an already complex and difficult boardroom matter’.What made it worse was the timing of the highly charged politicisation of the crisis, as it had coincided with a visit abroad by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to raise funds for Eskom’s expansion.’Fortunately, the reputational damage done to Eskom was minimal as investors are well acquainted with Eskom’s performance – but those who want to make a political crusade out of boardroom politics need to reflect on the potentialy damaging consequences for a company such as Eskom and the economy of South Africa,’ she said.Hogan was at pains to assure South Africans that the crisis had not left Eskom in disarray. She said Makwana would remain as acting executive chairman until a permanent CEO had been found.’Yes, there was a breakdown in the critical relationship between the board and CEO – and this is indeed a serious matter,’ Hogan told MPs. ‘But the fact of the matter was that Eskom and its operations continued.A ‘trying two weeks’ had been taken up with ‘days and days and long hours and complex negotiations’ to find an ‘amicable settlement’ but she said she had never gone beyond her mandate or interfered with the contractual relationship between Eskom’s board and its CEO.’We tried to pursue options of facilitation, mediation and arbitration, even a negotiated settlement,’ she said. ‘During this period, a demand arose that the minister must provide ‘leadership’. As we were to discover, the subtext of this demand was in actual fact a far more sinister demand that I, as minister, override the board and confirm a person in his position.’As minister, I refused to override the principles of corporate governance by imposing a person in the position of CEO without the authority of the law.’President Jacob Zuma’s office had asked the board ‘to delay its processes in a final attempt to resolve the matter’, Hogan said.She said her own and the Presidency’s interventions were ‘not taken lightly’ and aimed not at undermining the board but to ‘rather lend it support to resolve the dispute’.She thanked the ANC, Cosatu and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for their support, ‘sobriety and discretion’ and for speaking out in defence of Godsell against the racism accusations.Opposition political parties across the spectrum welcomed the fact that Maroga was out, but nearly all of them held that the government should also bear responsibility for Eskom’s failures over the past few years. – Nampa-Reuters