Former executives conspired to bring Eskom to its knees – Mabuza

Eskom was seemingly being run by shady characters from outside the company, who used their power over the entity to line their own pockets for several years, leading to its current predicament.

“Eskom was being run outside of Eskom,” said Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza, who yesterday concluded his two-day testimony at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

Mabuza conceded that divulging commercially sensitive and confidential information by the power utility’s executives to third parties, amounted to state capture.

According to him, a string of e-mails and meetings between former acting chief executive officer Matshela Koko, former head of legals Suzanne Daniels, and former chief financial officer Anoj Singh, with Gupta business associates Salim Essa, Trillian chief executive Eric Wood, and Mo Bobat of Regiments Capital, demonstrated the power of those behind Gupta-linked companies in dictating terms in the running and the ultimate fleecing of the currently cash-strapped stateowned enterprise.

Quoting an e-mail exchange in 2015 between Essa and Koko, Mabuza said “the biggest game changer” at Eskom was a move by the Guptas to bring new leadership under Brian Molefe and a pliant board, which implemented the family business objectives.

Mabuza said: “This has been multilayered capture. It has not been enough to deal with structures but also individuals. People placed at Eskom should be those with upright standing, credibility and ethics.

“I hope that the commission will show that corruption doesn’t pay and that the ethos of working hard and paying taxes has to be brought back to society. We have people who continue to flaunt their ill-gotten gains.”

Mabuza has recommended that the commission subpoena 15 individuals who include Molefe, Essa, Zethembe Khoza, Ben Ngubane, Ayanda Ntetha to testify. Today’s spotlight will be on the Tegeta-owned Brakfontein coal mine.

–brians@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.