Brown captured and a liar, says Eskom GM

Qoma says minister reports to the Guptas Parastal’s deterioration due to poor leadership

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown came under scathing attack on Tuesday from an Eskom GM, who accused her of being incompetent, a liar and captured by the Guptas.

The accusations came as the Department of Public Enterprises criticised the inquiry into state capture taking place in Parliament and led by the committee for public enterprises for being “procedurally unfair”.

It alleged that evidence leader Ntuthuzelo Vanara had allowed statements to be made about people without them being given an opportunity to respond. This was the case, the department said, with the allegation that Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Ben Martins had attended a meeting earlier in 2017 with Ajay Gupta, Gupta associate Salim Essa and suspended Eskom head of legal and compliance Suzanne Daniels.

Martins has denied he had been present at the meeting and Eskom has distanced itself from the statements made by Daniels and its reputation manager and GM in the chairman’s office, Khulani Qoma.

Eskom chairman Zethembe Khoza said the manner in which Qoma spoke about Brown, was “not part of the Eskom culture”.

The committee issued a statement, stressing that those mentioned during testimony would be given an opportunity to tell their side of the story.

In his evidence, Qoma attributed much of the deterioration at the parastal to Brown’s poor leadership, her appointment of poorly skilled and low-quality board members, and her endorsement of totally compromised individuals such as Matshela Koko to take over the position of CEO. “The minister has gone to the ends of the world to tell us she is not wet but she is

right in the middle of the water [of state capture],” Qoma said.

“This mess would not have happened if there was a capable minister. She is totally incapable. She has no clue about what she is doing,” Qoma said.

The minister was an “atrocious” shareholder who lied, he said. Her stock response to crises was to say she did not know about things or was misled and when she was in a corner, she said she had no say over operational matters.

Qoma said the board was lacklustre and this prompted questions as to where Brown had found them. He told MPs how Brown had allegedly intervened at the request of the Guptas to prevent the suspension of then interim CEO Koko by the Eskom board.

Koko has been central to controversial deals with Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration and Resources and is under suspension for concluding contracts with a company in which his stepdaughter was involved.

Qoma said former chairman Ben Ngubane had confirmed that the Eskom board was on the verge of suspending Koko earlier in 2017, when Brown phoned to prevent it.

Ngubane had called a special board meeting to discuss the suspension, which had been agreed to by the board. According to Qoma, Eskom acting chairman Zethembe Khoza had left the special board meeting just before Koko was called in to be given his suspension, in order to phone one of the Gupta brothers to inform him of the development. A short while later, Brown phoned to stop the suspension, leading to the conclusion that the Gupta brother must have phoned Brown.

Qoma said Khoza had told him that Brown was captured and reported to the Guptas. Qoma queried why the Eskom board had tried so hard to keep suspended financial director Anoj Singh in his job. Brown had not taken action against Singh even though he had prompted her to lie to Parliament by saying that Eskom had not paid Gupta-linked Trillian Capital when it had, in fact, paid it hundreds of millions of rand. Singh had not faced any steps after this disclosure.

This was just one of the “puzzles” Qoma grappled with over Brown. She had also brought in former CEO Brian Molefe and had appointed the compromised Sean Maritz as interim CEO.

She had failed to respond to media allegations regarding an attempt by her lover to get an Eskom contract.

Qoma said Brown’s directorgeneral Richard Seleke and her former personal assistant Kim Davids were allegedly captured.