The appointment of former Eskom boss Brian Molefe as an MP was “regrettable and unhelpful” as the former Eskom CEO has failed to explain himself after he was implicated in the damning “State of Capture” report, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Friday.

“Cosatu expresses its profound disapproval of the decision by the ANC [African National Congress] to send Brian Molefe to Parliament as a new MP. The federation views this appointment as regrettable and unhelpful because Brian Molefe remains tainted by the Public Protector’s state capture report. He left some unanswered questions at Eskom and the people of this country deserve some answers from him,” the trade union federation said.

“While, we do not condone any public lynching of those who have not been found guilty by the courts of law, we feel that Mr Molefe has so far failed to account and explain himself to South Africans. His dramatic resignation from Eskom raised more questions than answers.”

Cosatu said Molefe, who was sworn in as an MP on Thursday, should have been allowed to clear his name first before being appointed to Parliament, and that this gives weight to allegations that the governing ANC is not interested in what people have to say.

“This decision does not help the fight against corruption, and also does very little to convince South Africans that the ANC has managed to decode the message sent by voters in last year’s local government elections. It looks like the ‘business as usual’ mentality still prevails and nothing has changed.”

“Cosatu believes that we cannot afford to be selective when fighting corruption…we need to fearlessly fight corruption in both the public and the private sector.”

Molefe was sworn in despite controversies surrounding his branch membership at the ANC branch in Hartebeespoort Dam in Madibeng, North West. Some branch members have distanced themselves from Molefe’s nomination to Parliament. They said they were not consulted and they had never heard of Molefe’s membership of their branch before.

Molefe lives in Irene, Pretoria.