Union welcomes High Court’s decision to set aside ‘unlawful’ Econ Oil supply deal

1st July 2021 By: Marleny Arnoldi - Deputy Editor Online

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has welcomed the Gauteng High Court’s ruling to set aside the R8-billion tender between power utility Eskom and oil blender Econ Oil after the matter was heard on June 9.

The court on June 29 found that the contract was unlawful.

The contract entered into by the two companies in 2019 changed from R850-million to R8-billion and involved supplying power stations with fuel oil.

Judge Bashier Bally said the tender was tarnished by irregularity and illegality and contravened public procurement policy.

The NUM says this ruling will go a long way in fighting corruption at State-owned entities and the private sector.

The union has called for an investigation around character assessment at Eskom, since the court had found that the matter would have been resolved earlier if the board had applied its mind properly to the matter.

The NUM says it wants to know whether any board members involved at the time benefitted from this unlawful deal.

“We believe there is no way a competent board of Eskom could have not foreseen the discrepancy identified by the judge. We call for the blacklisting of board members who were involved.”

News24 reports that Econ Oil has since said it would appeal the High Court ruling and its view remains that the contract was legally binding.