The High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, ruled that embattled former Eskom chief executive officer (CEO) Brian Molefe was not entitled to any pension benefits from the State-owned power utility, and must pay back the money he has since received.

"We came to the conclusion that the reinstatement of Mr Molefe as Group Chief Executive Officer at Eskom is at variance with the principle of legality and is invalid and false -- to be set aside," Judge Elias Matojane read out the judgement on behalf of a full bench of high court judges.

"We also found that Mr Molefe was never entitled to receive any pension benefits from the Eskom pension fund, and any payments made in lieu of such benefits were patently unlawful."

The court ruled that Molefe must pay back every cent advanced to him from the pension fund, in the next 10 days.

Molefe has already received R11-million from the R30 million-pension payout.

The matter was brought by South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, and trade union Solidarity, seeking an order declaring Molefe’s R30-million pension payout unlawful and for it to be set aside.

Molefe left Eskom under a dark cloud after being implicated in the then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s damning State of Capture report.