Eskom reinstates suspended bosses

• Chairman said to be behind about-turn

• Action against pair was over Trillian payments

A week of chaos at Eskom has culminated in two top officials, who had been suspended for making suspect payments of R600m to Gupta-linked financial advisory firm Trillian, being reinstated two days later, allegedly at the behest of interim chairman Zethembe Khoza.

Business Day has seen signed documents that show senior procurement manager Charles Kalima and former procurement head Edwin Mabelane were handed suspension letters over the Trillian payments on Monday and then told to report back to work on Thursday.

Another suspension letter prepared for acting head of group capital Prish Govender over the payments was never handed to him, also allegedly due to pressure by Khoza.

The letters said Eskom intended to suspend the trio for “involvement in the procurement of services from Trillian Management Consultants and subsequent payments thereof”.

Govender said he was aware of the Trillian probe, but had no knowledge of plans to suspend him. Kalima and Mabelane declined to comment.

Senior sources at Eskom with direct knowledge of the facts said the suspensions flowed from an investigation by law firm Bowmans, which had interviewed about 20 people at Eskom in the past month.

It found evidence that chief financial officer Anoj Singh, former acting CEO Matshela Koko, Govender, Mabelane, Kalima and two other officials were “directly implicated” in committing serious irregularities in paying R1.6bn in consulting fees to Trillian and McKinsey.

An interim report by Bowmans said there was “a prima facie case of actionable wrongdoing”, the sources said. The law

firm found Eskom had, in fact, paid Trillian and McKinsey R200m more than the power utility had declared to the media in July, taking the total payments to R1.6bn.

Singh and Koko are already on suspension.

Even though Trillian did not have a contract with either Eskom or McKinsey, the politically connected firm was paid R600m between April 2016 and February 2017.

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown had said she had “impressed on Eskom’s board the necessity to expedite the company’s processes relating to alleged misconduct by Mr Koko and Mr Singh, among other Eskom employees”, said spokesman Colin Cruywagen. “The minister awaits the board’s final reports on its proposed actions,” he said.

Trillian has denied any wrongdoing and insists it “only billed for work undertaken”.

At the time, the company was majority-owned by Gupta lieutenant Salim Essa and, according to an investigation by former public protector Thuli Madonsela, was funnelling money to the Guptas to buy the Optimum coal mine, although Trillian has denied this.

Several sources claimed that on Wednesday, Khoza instructed officials to lift the suspensions of Kalima and Mabelane, although he denies this.

“That was a management thing. I do not get involved,” Khoza said.

However, later that day, Mabelane and Kalima received letters informing them their suspension had been lifted “with immediate effect”, the documents show.

It is unclear who authorised the suspension upliftment as acting CEO Johnny Dladla was off sick all week.

Singh and Govender have emerged as central to the Trillian payments. Trillian’s invoices, for which there are no contracts, were sent to Govender, who managed the consultancy project, or Singh, and were paid within one to three days.

Singh was put on special leave in July.