Gupta grilling for Eskom bosses

Eskom’s top figures faced tough questions in Parliament as the utility’s business dealings with the Guptas came into focus.

Johannesburg - The fight between Eskom and the National Treasury has been described as an all-out war, with MPs telling Eskom bosses it was Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown who had forced the power utility to hand over information to the Treasury.

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Eskom faced a grilling from Parliament on Wednesday, in an open war that has drawn other state-owned entities (SOEs), including Denel, into a battle with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

This came after Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe and board chairman Ben Ngubane denied any underhanded tactics in giving the Guptas tenders to supply coal to Eskom.

They also denied blocking an investigation by the Treasury into the coal contracts. Molefe also denied that he was corrupt or captured by the Guptas, the influential Indian family said to have close ties to President Jacob Zuma, insisting instead that he was “captured by the constitution”.

Molefe added that allegations against the Guptas were merely “gossip and innuendo”, and as long as they weren't found guilty of any wrongdoing, Eskom could not stop doing business with them.

“Until we can get a reason to blacklist them, I’m afraid if they bid for a transaction, if they apply to do work with us, we have to consider them like everybody else, and that is required of us by a document no less than the constitution,” he said.

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“I don’t know that by saying so that makes me a captured person. Perhaps I’m captured, but I am captured by the constitution, not by the Guptas.”

Eskom was appearing before the portfolio committee on public enterprises yesterday on its financials and its fights with the Treasury, which had escalated into the extraordinary exchange via media statements over the past few days.

The dispute has spilt into a verbal warfare pitting some government ministers against each other, with some from within the governing ANC attacking Gordhan over his refusal to present himself for questioning by the Hawks.

This followed an article in the Sunday Times claiming that coal supplied by the Gupta-owned Tegeta had been found to be substandard, that the company received an advance payment of R134 million and that the contract was negotiated while Tegeta had yet to receive a water-use licence for the mine.

Ngubane also denied any corruption in the contracts and said everything was above board.

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Molefe said he had the utmost respect for Gordhan and that he was the best man for the Treasury job.

He said that while he knew the Guptas and had met them - just as he did with other businessmen, including Jonathan Oppenheimer and Anton Rupert - that did not make him corrupt.

Molefe also denied that they had refused to give the Treasury information on the coal contracts. He said Eskom’s response to a 172-page report from the Treasury, which it received in April, had been ready for some time but it was the Treasury which had insisted the responses be considered by the board before being submitted.

They were waiting for the board meeting in September, as instructed by the Treasury, before submitting the documents. However, they submitted the documents on Tuesday after Brown intervened and instructed them to do so.

But MPs were concerned about the proximity of Molefe with the Guptas and the alleged preferential treatment their companies were receiving. United Democratic Movement MP Nqaba Nkwankwa said the ANC was in charge of the affairs of the state.

“I think the scramble for SOEs is a political question that needs to be answered by the government that put you there as the CEO,” he said.

He said, however, that there was concern in the public about preferential treatment given to the Guptas on contracts.

The acting chairwoman of the committee, ANC MP Zukiswa Rantho, told The Star it would seek a meeting with Brown, the Treasury and Eskom on September 21 to get to the bottom of the matter. The committee is to hold a similar meeting with Denel and the Treasury next week.

Minister in the Presidency Susan Shabangu later told Parliament they were concerned about the various squabbles involving Gordhan.

* With additional reporting by ANA

THE STAR