Eskom dismisses head of legal Suzanne Daniels

Eskom’s head of legal and compliance Suzanne Daniels has been dismissed following a disciplinary hearing where she was found guilty of all four charges laid against her.

The power utility on Friday issued a statement indicating that the disciplinary hearing’s independent chairperson Advocate Nazir Cassim SC recommend that she be dismissed. Eskom accepted the recommendation and has already sent Daniels a letter of dismissal, according to the statement.

• READ: Eskom slaps whistle-blower Suzanne Daniels with fresh charges

The hearing which commenced on May 14 and was finalised on July 6 found that Daniels committed a “serious misconduct”. Daniels “breached her duty of good faith and trust and confidence to Eskom,” the statement read.

Daniels was found guilty of misconduct in terms of distributing confidential Eskom proprietary to a third party, her involvement in the McKinsey and Trillian transactions, her involvement in the Tegeta transaction and mandating a firm of attorneys and approving their payment for legal services rendered to the former SABC board chairperson Parliament’s SABC inquiry which “had absolutely nothing to do with Eskom”.

• READ: Daniels slams Eskom for 'victimisation and harassment' after new charges

Daniels however had denied the charges in her plea application for the hearing, Fin24 previously reported.

Daniels told Fin24 she would be sitting down with her lawyers on Monday and will be going through the detailed judgment, which is about 48 pages long. “Whatever rights of recourse I have, I will be pursuing,” she said.

When asked if she thought the process was fair, Daniels said she expected this outcome as the chairman was not predisposed to listening to her version “right from the outset”.

Speaking to eNCA on Friday evening, Daniels said she decided to blow the whistle in 2017, after her conscious was “jolted” by Public Enterprise Minister Pravin Gordhan’s statement at a press briefing  to “connect the dots”.

 “When you close to something, you don’t really see the bigger picture. Pravin Gordhan made the challenge to us to connect the dots… it started to make me think what are we actually doing?”

Eskom said its board and management are encouraged by Cassim’s ruling and are resolute on restoring good governance and ethical conduct at Eskom.

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