Johannesburg - Political parties and civil society organisations have responded with shock to the news that Eskom has been exempted from disclosing irregular and fruitless expenditures in its annual financial statements.
Greenpeace Africa Climate and Energy Campaigner Thandile Chinyavanhu says that the decision by National Treasury and Finance Minister Godongwana is baffling and completely disregards the needs of the people of South Africa.
"At first glance, it gives Eskom free rein to avoid transparency, and most people in South Africa will understand it as such,’’ said Chinyavanhu.
Chinyavanhu said that the government had put the cart before the horse and stumbled over both by publishing the exemption first and promising a technical explanation later.
"South Africa needs action, not smoke and mirrors, and most certainly not more corruption from Eskom."
"The announcement has raised more questions than answers. Government needs to answer for what this means in terms of the State of Disaster, Eskom's environmental, climate, and social mandates, and how transparency will be ensured at Eskom going forward," added Chinyavanhu.
In a statement, ActionSA said that it was extremely concerned that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s decision to grant Eskom an exemption from declaring its irregular and fruitless expenditure would allow the utility to hide criminality and theft at the embattled power utility.
ActionSA said it found it extremely concerning that Godongwana would attempt to reduce transparency at Eskom, as it sets a dangerous precedent for utilising these types of mechanisms to hide financial mismanagement at state-owned enterprises.
"There is very little reason to believe that these exemptions will have a significant impact on Eskom’s ability to attract funding, yet the risk of abuse is immense."
While ActionSA agrees that Eskom should be exempt from some of the overly burdensome regulatory demands of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), which, for example, forces them to tender for maintenance contracts rather than directly contracting with original equipment manufacturers at a lower price, we cannot normalise the circumvention of measures intended to improve transparency to ensure that load shedding is diligently dealt with and relegated to a thing of the past," said the party.
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said that Treasury and Godongwana are operating like a mafia, saying that they are casting a shadow over South Africa’s democracy and the democracy it requires.
"We are utterly shocked and displeased by the brazen arrogance of the Minister of Finance, who, by making this decision, undermines the pillars of transparency and accountability that our democracy is built upon," read an EFF statement.
The statement further said they would be subjecting the decision to a judicial review and heading to court to have what they call ‘irrational’ overturned.
The Star