Brian’s R30m trick
Pension experts say Eskom’s agreement to pay Brian Molefe an early retirement pension of R30m could be unlawful
Eskom’s agreement to pay Brian Molefe an early retirement pension of R30m for the 18 months he worked at Eskom before leaving in December could be unlawful, pension experts told the Financial Mail. To determine the legality of the agreement, the first point to ponder is that Molefe is under 55, which is the eligible age for early retirement, in terms of section 24 of Eskom’s pension and provident fund (EPPF) rules. Molefe was 50 when he struck the agreement with Eskom’s board. "Even if Eskom had agreed to treat Molefe’s departure as ‘early retirement’ for employment purposes, it could not have been treated as such for the purposes of the EPPF," says independent pension lawyer Rosemary Hunter. "Molefe would only have been eligible for early retirement in terms of the rules of the EPPF if he had reached the age of 55 — which he hadn’t; and he was not required in terms of his fixed-term contract of employment to remain employed throughout the period of that employment — which in his ca...
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