Trade Federation Cosatu says that the withdrawal of the gazette exempting Eskom from disclosing irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure must be permanent.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told a special sitting of parliamentary finance cluster committees that the decision was temporary.
Finance Minister withdraws Eskom’s PFMA exemption:
He says the decision to withdraw the gazette was taken to allow for a more comprehensive consultation process with the Auditor-General and other relevant stakeholders.
Cosatu’s General Secretary Solly Phetoe says that the exemption would lead to another round of state capture.
“Because for us we don’t see a reason why irregularities and managing of the process of procurement at Eskom or any other SOEs must be privatized or exempted, we think that public must know what is happening in all the SOEs. The issue of consulting the AG for us is not a big issue but we think that the issue of the leadership capacity is a matter that we’ve been raising all along and for some time. Issues of procurement, issues of management at Eskom must be known by everybody what is happening.”
Cosatu’s Solly Phetoe weighs in on Eskom exemption matter:
Meanwhile, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) says that while they welcome the temporary withdrawal of decision exempting Eskom from disclosing irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure, it must be noted that Treasury did not just volunteer the withdrawal.
Saftu’s national Spokesperson, Trevor Shaku says, “Saftu calls on Treasury to withdraw this exemption permanently. Like we noted in our previous statement, this exemption was not going to help Eskom in any way. If anything, it was going to incentivise incompetency, irregular and wasteful expenditure, and mismanagement broadly. Transparency is the first weapon against corruption. If Treasury helps management of Eskom to conceal fruitless and irregular spending, it will be creating conditions for the thriving of corruption that lies behind those fruitless and wasteful expenditures.”
