The state capture commission of inquiry said each one of three were paid over R6 million.
A screengrab of former Eskom board member Venete Klein appearing at the state capture inquiry in Johanneburg on 10 September 2020. Picture: SABC/YouTube
JOHANNESBURG – Former Eskom board member Venete Klein on Thursday said that the R18 million that was paid to the three executives who were let go in 2015 was nothing compared to the R375 million turnover that the state-owned entity made annually.
The state capture commission of inquiry said that each one of three were paid over R6 million.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo repeatedly asked why the money was paid when they had done nothing wrong and they were willing to return to Megawatt Park.
Zondo was worried that the R18 million that Eskom paid to former CEO Tshediso Matona and two other executives was unnecessary, but Klein disagreed with him.
“If they want to resign, let them resign. I’m not trivialising the point. So, R18 million for a company with a turnover of R375 million annually, those are not even comparative,” Klein said.
Zondo put it to her that the executives did not want to leave and it did not make sense that they were paid.
Klein changed her tune.
“In the context of what we were facing at the time, which was a R434 million cost to this country per day [and] now we are sitting with a threat of a total blackout, if you ask me, I think some of the decisions that we made, I’m going to concede could have been better made,” she said.
Klein told Zondo she was not trivialising the matter, but she believed that more capable people could be appointed.
