Mabuza warns against racialisation of problems at Eskom

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Deputy President David Mabuza has warned against the racialisation of problems at Eskom.

He was responding to a question from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the NCOP on whether only black executives are suspended at the power utility pending investigations.

Mabuza said the racial tone around criticisms of Eskom leadership in some quarters concerns him.

Mabuza has called for people to desist from making everything about race. He says looking at everything through racial eyes goes against the country’s constitution which espouses a non-racial society.

” I will always listen to any problems that are being said but let’s desist from going a step further to put a colour into the challenge if people are suspended. They are suspended because they’ve done something wrong,  not just because of their colour. We must move away otherwise you are getting deep where we are regressing as a country.”

Eskom CEO cleared of allegations of racism

Earlier in June, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter was cleared of allegations of racism that were levelled against him. Eskom said its Board has received the report from Advocate Ishmael Semenya who was appointed to investigate the claims.

The allegations included the abuse of power, racial discrimination, poor governance, irregular recruitment, irregular staff appointments as well as unlawful procurement.

The independent investigation was instituted after Eskom’s former head of procurement, Solly Tshitangano, wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the board’s chairperson, Malegapuru Makgoba alleging that De Ruyter favoured white employees.

Tshitangano accused De Ruyter of purging black suppliers and using racism to deal with them. He also accused De Ruyter of attempting to purge black suppliers from Eskom’s database.

Managers not following SOPs replaced

De Ruyter says the power utility has acquired the services of the best experts within Eskom to help with operations excellence.  Interviewed on the new SABC news programme, The Watchdog kast week, De Ruyter says some managers have been replaced for failing to adhere to standard operating procedures at Eskom.

He says inefficiencies combined with ageing infrastructure and poor maintenance in the past have contributed to the continuing power outages in the country.

“We have also I think managed to focus quite a lot on operations excellence. We have acquired the services of the best experts you can find inside Eskom. They are now being deployed to the power stations where they can apply their expertise to particular fills, and they can assist power station managers to ensure that each and every one of the elements is being attended to,” said De Ruyter.

 

6 months ago