The Young communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) welcomes the long overdue resignation of Bobby Godsell as the Chairperson of the Eskom Board. We say Good Riddance; his resignation exposes his resistance to transformation in Eskom and his intentions to destabilise the institution in terms of governance and administration and basically to sabotage the mandate of our government to turn-around the crises at the power utility.
The YCLSA believes that this is a progressive step towards transformation and further ensuring that the mandate of ESKOM remains that of service delivery and delivering energy as a broader spectrum of the industrialization strategy as opposed to it being a profit maximisation corporate entity that seeks to exploit the poor to the benefit of the few elite lily white corporations
We doubt that Godsell's attempt to push Maroga had anything to do only with racism, and may actually be about business and political interests and forces that saw Eskom as a cash-cow, and wanted their fingers in the Eskom's pot of gold. We have it on good authority that Maroga resisted all of these shenanigans, especially an attempt by Godsell to play the executive role, and thus the mockery that transpired last weekend.
We were also sickened by Godsell's divisive attitude of the senior management of Eskom, treating other officials and managers as his blue-eyed boys. Thus, we say, good riddance.
The feud at Eskom displays the need for the Minister of Public Enterprise to clearly distinguish the role of the board in parastatals and those of their executives. This was the case with the SABC Board, and now it is a crisis at Transnet.
Full Blown Enquiry
The YCLSA calls for an urgent, full blown enquiry into the state of Eskom and its mandate and moreover, that the inquiry should cover questions of governance and transformation. There should also be a probe as to how the staff memorandum on the resignation of Moroga was swiftly "leaked" to the Democratic Alliance. If anybody, including and especially Godsell, are discovered to have breached their fiduciary duties as a director in giving the DA crucial information without consultation, they should be bought to book.
We implore Maroga to concentrate on the pressing crises around the launch of a turn-around strategy, the building of new power stations, financing of new power generation projects, rampant power cuts and a possible 45% tariff increase in the next 3 years as what should preoccupy the leadership and executive of Eskom.
We hold no brief for Maroga, and want him and his senior management to know that if they fail the poor in terms of provision of electricity, we will hold them accountable and there will be no scapegoat in the form of Godsell.