The EFF has reacted with fury to remarks made by Eskom board member Mteto Nyati regarding affirmative action and black economic empowerment at the power utility.
THE EFF has reacted with fury to remarks made by Eskom board member Mteto Nyati regarding affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE) at Eskom.
In an interview with Sunday Times, the newly appointed Eskom board member said he believes empowerment rules are hampering Eskom’s performance, adding that these policies will have to go if the electricity crisis is to be solved.
Nyati is in charge of the Eskom board’s new business operations performance committee, which is working with management to optimise the troubled energy provider.
“It’s our responsibility as the board to remove any blockages or challenges in the way of the management team so they can focus on doing what they know best,” said Nyati.
The EFF has in turn slammed Nyati’s comments that to save the ailing parastatal and solve the electricity crisis, BEE and affirmative action policies must be discarded.
“The EFF condemns the contemptible, misdirected and nonsensical remarks made by Eskom board member Mteto Nyati that to save Eskom we must do away with localisation, black empowerment and affirmative actions,” the party said.
“Such comments from someone who has received special treatment from the establishment are a vindication that the newly appointed board of Eskom does not have the interests of South Africa and black people in mind.”
It said his remarks expose his poor understanding of the role of procurement in localisation, building industries and the creation of sustainable jobs.
“The idea that procurement of goods through current legislation seeks to create a layer of middlemen is not only misguided but demonstrates that people like him are entrusted to run large and complex institutions because it is known that they will be obedient puppets and fronts for neo-colonial institutions and an economy that seeks to benefit former colonisers,” the party said.
The EFF added that Eskom needs to focus on its mandate of generating power in an affordable and dependable manner.
“Clearly Nyati must have drunk (Eskom CEO) Andre de Ruyter’s Kool-Aid if he is willing to show such unquestioning obedience to Eskom’s current management’s folly, incompetence and corruption. If he believes that localisation, industrialisation and black empowerment are synonymous with dysfunctional, incompetence and the failure of Eskom, he is clearly an unsalvageable puppet of the establishment white capitalist, whose entire wealth is based on the exploitation of the working class and black people,” the EFF said.
