Solidarity guns for Molefe

Trade union Solidarity is gunning for disgraced former Eskom boss Brian Molefe for his “unlawful” R30-million pension windfall from the power utility.

The trade union is set to reveal its litigation strategy to get Molefe to pay back the money in a press briefing scheduled for Thursday morning at the union's headquarters in Kloofsig‚ Pretoria.

The union said in a statement it will disclose detailed information gleaned from minutes and documentation on Molefe’s resignation after the release of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s scathing State of Capture report‚ his sudden early retirement‚ his inauguration as Member of Parliament‚ his reinstatement at Eskom and his subsequent dismissal.

Solidarity said it will also disclose information regarding deliberate misrepresentations as well as Molefe’s own participation in approving his own advancement.

The head of Solidarity's Centre for Fair Labour Practices‚ Anton van der Bijl‚ said Molefe should be held criminally liable for his selfish deeds that have plunged Eskom into controversy. “New information regarding a criminal investigation into the actions of Molefe and the Eskom board will also be discussed at the conference‚” he said.

Van der Bijl said Molefe’s initial early retirement and the subsequent pension pay-out was not fair and did not take place within the framework of Eskom’s pension and provident fund.

He said the 50-year old Molefe was exempted from any penalties payable for early retirement and additional benefits equivalent to 13 years’ service were assured for him. “In our litigation‚ we’ll demand that all pension fund pay-outs and benefits awarded to Molefe should be repaid‚” Van der Bijl said.

Solidarity chief executive Dirk Hermann said the Molefe saga was more than just about an individual enriching himself but was also about state capture and the looting of tax money.

“The court case is on behalf of tax payers who are fed up with tax money being abused. Tax payers must use all criminal and civil instruments available to them to protect tax money‚” he said.

Molefe dramatically resigned as Eskom boss in November last year‚ following the Public Protector’s report which found that he had exchanged 58 mobile phone calls with members of the controversial Gupta family during the period when their companies were in the process of buying a company that supplied Eskom with coal.

The report revealed how Molefe was placed in the Saxonwold area‚ where the Guptas lived at the time‚ on 19 occasions in the three months to mid-November the previous year.