Energy21.01.2016

Eskom lays criminal charge against DA

Eskom laid a criminal charge against the DA on Thursday for allegedly contravening the Regulation of Gatherings Act.

Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe told Fin24 that the DA arrived under the false pretence that they were coming for a meeting with a senior manager.

“It’s about the principle… the law in terms of the gathering act says that if you are more than 15 people you have to gain prior approval,” Phasiwe said.

DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises Natasha Mazzone showed up at the utility’s head office in Sunninghill on Wednesday with around 30 DA members and demanded the opportunity to hand a petition to Eskom CEO Brian Molefe.

In its petition the DA called on Eskom’s executive to pay back R63m in bonuses and agree to no further bonuses “until the crisis was over and load-shedding was no longer a threat”.

Phasiwe accused the DA of using “ambushing tactics” and in a statement described how the group “occupied the reception area in a rowdy manner”.

Molefe agreed to accept the petition to “diffuse the situation”, he said.

The utility said that had appeared in Parliament where Mazzone sat 91 times between April 2012 and November 2015.

“Additionally, we have dealt with hundreds of parliamentary questions of which 11 dealt with the issue of remuneration in the past three years,” Eskom said.

“Over the last three years Eskom has not paid bonuses… the executive has stated that if there is going to be load shedding we are not going to give anyone bonuses,” Phasiwe said.

Eskom will be laying another charge of fraud later on Thursday following a brief investigation that allegedly revealed that the information of some of the signatories of the “petition” was not authentic.

Fin24