Axed Eskom legal head lifts lid on Gupta links
Salim Essa had prior knowledge of suspensions MPs told of meeting with Zuma’s son and Ajay Gupta
Parliament’s probe into the capture of state-owned enterprises has learnt that Gupta associate Salim Essa told a senior Eskom employee two days before it happened in March 2015 that four Eskom executives would be suspended.
The testimony of Eskom’s suspended head of legal and compliance, Suzanne Daniels, on Wednesday once again highlighted the manner in which employees who resisted the grip the Guptas exercised over the utility’s procurement were forced to leave the company.
She accused Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and the Eskom board of not acting against the irregularities she addressed in a comprehensive report submitted to both.
The report led to her being suspended in October on the grounds of “misconduct”.
Daniels said Brown’s dismissive response to her report meant the minister sanctioned what was going on at Eskom. She was convinced the current and previous boards of the utility were run by the Guptas.
Daniels said her meeting with Essa on March 9 2015 was at the instigation of suspended head of generation Matshela Koko, who took her to Essa’s office. Essa started asking her about Eskom’s disciplinary procedures and what had to be done to suspend people.
He then told Daniels what would happen in the next few days — that then Eskom group CEO Tshediso Matona, group executive for capital Dan Marokane, finance director Tsholofelo Molefe and Koko would be suspended and that the Eskom board would communicate this.
The suspensions took place on March 11 and only Koko was eventually taken back.
Daniels recounted that Essa had contacted her in July 2017 and asked to meet for coffee. After a meeting at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg, he took her to an apartment where there were four people: Ajay Gupta, President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Ben Martins and a Chinese woman.
Daniels said she was left
“absolutely speechless” when she saw who was present.
“I couldn’t believe where I was and what I was hearing.”
The discussion was about the court proceedings related to former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe. Daniels said she told the gathering she had held discussions with the deputy judge president about holding a single hearing for the several cases regarding Molefe’s pension payment and employment, which had been brought by the EFF, the DA and Solidarity.
Gupta said the hearing had to take place after December 2017, but Daniels told MPs she had made sure it would be heard on November 29.
She said she agreed with the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund that the fund was misled about the nature of Molefe’s employment contract.
He was loaded into the system as a permanent employee even though he was on contract, which had a bearing on the R30m pension payout.
Daniels told MPs she had received death threats and there had been attempted break-ins at her home. She had been followed in her car and she said there was no doubt her phone was tapped. She had been told on the phone that “if you know what is good for you, you will shut up”.
Daniels also recounted how Brown’s personal assistant, Kim Davids, had approached her at a chairperson’s forum and said the minister had been receiving complaints from suppliers — that is Trillian Capital — about Eskom’s procurement practices. Davids said Daniels would get a letter from Brown telling her to give them work.
“I was surprised that a PA [personal assistant] was telling me what to do,” Daniels said. She also said Davids had phoned to say Brown wanted Daniels to appoint Nkonki Incorporated to head the Koko probe.
Daniels said the disciplinary process against Koko was a “sham”. Koko is facing charges of having awarded contracts to a company in which his stepdaughter is involved.