Koko now ‘convinced’ he emailed Eskom info to third parties

Former Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko has insisted he unknowingly shared information to a business man linked to the Gupta family, Salim Essa. His testimony at the state capture commission continued on Monday afternoon.

While being questioned on emails he sent to an account named “Business Man” in 2015 linked to several lucrative contracts at the utility, Matshela said it was only now dawning on him, based on evidence before the commission that an email address he thought belonged to former Eskom board chair Dr Ben Ngubane actually belonged to “a third party”.

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Refusing to say whether he thought the email was linked to Essa, Koko instead drew the commission’s attention to the link between Essa and former Eskom head of legal affairs, Suzanne Daniels. According to Koko, Daniels gave him the email address under the false pretence that it belonged to Ngubane.

In her testimony to the commission last year, Daniels said she was offered an R800 million bribe in 2017 when she was summoned to a meeting with Ajay Gupta, former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane Zuma and then energy minister Ben Martins. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss former Eskom CEO Ben Molefe’s pension payout.

“If you want to know the proximity between Salim Essa and Ms Daniels, look at these documents,” Matshela said, referring to the evidence before the commission allegedly linking Daniels to Essa. ” These document bring them together. So now I know that Ms Daniels is associated with Mr Essa, based on these documents. Matshela was convinced, he insisted, that Daniels had access to the email account, Business Man.

Meanwhile former deputy president of the ANC Youth League Andile Lungisa tweeted his words of support for Koko as he took the stand at the commission on Monday.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za 

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