Good week for Ngoako Ramatlhodi and bad week for Lynne Brown
Hats off to former mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi for spilling the beans that Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and chairman Ben Ngubane allegedly put pressure on him to suspend the mining licences for Glencore’s 14 coal operations in SA until it had paid a R2.17bn penalty. The plan, apparently, was to force Glencore to sell its coal business to the Guptas in 2015. "I said I’m not going to shut the mines," he told investigative journalists at amaBhungane. It’s no surprise that Zuma soon axed him. Spare a thought for public enterprises minister Lynne Brown, who sounded dazed and buffeted as she announced the decision — doubtless forced on her — to reappoint Brian Molefe as Eskom CEO. "I still think it is a better proposition than paying Molefe R30m as a pension," said the minister — a classic political somersault based on fatuous justification by the very person who only weeks earlier had blocked the said pay-out.
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