Electricity parastatal Eskom's board should resign, the Black Management Forum (BMF) said on Thursday.

This followed a press briefing by Eskom at which acting chairperson Mpho Makwana said he would also act as the power utility's Chief Executive Officer, following the board's acceptance of former Jacob Maroga's resignation.

In a statement, the BMF said that Eskom's board was guilty of a glaring breach of corporate governance and of ignoring the Eskom Conversion Act which clearly stipulated that the Eskom chair should be non-executive.

"If the latest media reports are indeed true, that Mr Mpho Makwana has been charged to run Eskom until both Chair and CE are replaced, which is both performance of oversight and executive roles forbidden in the said Act, we expect the honest South African public to be outraged by this blatant breach of the Act and lawless deed by Eskom board and overwhelmingly call for its resignation," the BMF said.

Dismiss the whole board with immediate effect

Its deputy president Tembakazi Mnyaka added that he expected government to take a firm stand "against such lawlessness and dismiss the whole board with immediate effect."

Mnyaka referred to the board's "complicity" in misinformation regarding the "alleged resignation" of Maroga which still remained "a falsehood".

He added that the board had disregarded the country's labour related resignation procedures.

This, he said, smacked of "a travesty of justice and disregard of the laws of our country which they are supposed to uphold not only as citizens but most importantly as custodians of corporate governance."

He added that the BMF had challenged the Eskom board to produce evidence of Maroga's resignation.

Maroga has been pushed

"The BMF further stated that if Maroga is no longer the Chief Executive, we will know he has been pushed."

Mnyaka said if a board could not adhere to basic corporate governance principles, it should not be charged with the important responsibility of corporate governance.

"To the extent that the board even allowed the Chair and CE to step out to inter alia consider a counter strategy from a non executive instead of discussing , considering and strengthening the CE's strategy to be in line with the shareholder's vision calls into question the competence of the Board in execution of their fiduciary duties and responsibilities," he added.

It was for those reasons that the BMF had called and was still calling for the whole board of Eskom to step down.

"Their objectives are not only incongruent to those of state, but it failed to exercise vigilance in corporate governance matters which was the basis for its appointment."

Board of Eskom is over 60% black

Mnyaka said the board of Eskom was over 60 percent black "so it is inconceivable that racism could have gained so much prominence, but a transformational and developmental mindset is uppermost."

He said the BMF had questioned the ESKOM board on its commitment to the objectives of the shareholder and its flagrant disregard of corporate governance.

"State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are an important transformational vehicle for our country and therefore boards need to be transformed, both in the objectives of achieving a developmental state and of strategic view leading to effective management of these SOEs."

He added that the BMF had never defended mediocrity in management.

"We are a leadership development organisation hence we put value and prominence in effective leadership.

Not just a race issue

"It is for that reason that we place emphasis on performance of our managers and supporting them through development of their managerial capacity," Mnyaka said.

He attacked the media for "trivialising the BMF's concerns regarding the debacle at Eskom to simply a race issue."

He said certain media were practising not only selective reporting but selective amnesia to the fact that the Eskom board had breached corporate governance principles, and this was the essence of the BMF argument in calling for the board to step down.

On hearing the news of former Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell's resignation, Makwana said the press had asked whether the BMF was "pleased" with the resignation.

"My response was that the issue for the BMF was not about an individual as this was never a BMF crusade against Bobby as an individual but about principles, which have been breached," he said

Sapa

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