Lamberti quits Eskom board after AMH discrimination debacle
Cape Town - Mark Lamberti has resigned from his position as a director on the Eskom board. He tendered his resignation, which was accepted by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, in a letter on Friday night.
According to Gordhan, Lamberti cited the High Court judgment in the matter of J Chowan v Associated Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Others, as the reason for his resignation. "In representations to the Eskom board, Mr Lamberti maintained that “while mistakes were made and there are important lessons to be learnt, there were no findings in the judgment of race or gender discrimination against AMH (Associated Motor Holdings), Imperial or myself.”
“Despite this, there has been a mainstream and social media frenzy of generally inaccurate commentary. This is being fuelled by a political agenda and legally incorrect interpretations of the judgment, which have culminated inter alia in the most vitriolic defamation of my person. The most telling aspect of this is the call for the Minister and indeed the President to remove me from the Eskom board,” the letter stated.
READ: Eskom called on to act against racial, gender discrimination at AMH
Imperial chief executive Mark Lamberti and group chief financial officer of AMH Ockert Janse van Rensburg were accused of discriminating against a chartered accountant, Adila Chowan, on the basis of her race and gender.
"Mr Lamberti must be commended for taking the difficult decision to put the interests of Eskom, the board and the country above all else," Gordhan said in a statement on Saturday.
"Mr Lamberti has stated that he cannot, in good conscience, accept any compensation from Eskom and will return the fees paid to him as most of the Eskom board’s work to date has been preparatory," Gordhan said.