Board: Zuma part of Eskom axings
• Members tell Parliament’s state-capture probe that president and former SAA chairwoman had a direct role in executive suspensions
The Eskom board has corroborated the evidence provided by former chairman Zola Tsotsi that President Jacob Zuma played a role in the decision to suspend three senior executives in March 2015.
The Eskom board has corroborated the evidence provided by former chairman Zola Tsotsi that President Jacob Zuma had played a role in the decision to suspend three senior executives in March 2015.
The confirmation came in evidence members of the Eskom board presented on Tuesday to the parliamentary inquiry into state capture being held by the portfolio committee on public enterprises.
Suspended Eskom financial director Anoj Singh — who faces allegations that he facilitated dubious contracts with Guptaowned companies — was supposed to give evidence on Tuesday but was dismissed because of the late submission of his 400-page document that arrived only at 11pm on Monday. This did not give committee members enough time to prepare for their engagement with Singh, who will now appear before the committee in January 2018.
Tsotsi told the committee last week that the president, assisted by his close friend and then South African Airways chairwoman Dudu Myeni, had intervened directly in the suspension of the three executives — then acting CEO Tshediso Matona, group executive for capital Dan Marokane and group executive for commercial Matshela Koko.
Koko was the only one subsequently re-employed.
Former financial director Tsholofelo Molefe was also eventually suspended.
Tsotsi described how he was called to the presidential residence in Durban by Myeni, who insisted an inquiry would have to be held into Eskom’s nonperformance and that Matona, Marokane and Koko were to be suspended while the inquiry was under way. Zuma later joined the meeting.
In its written presentation to the committee on Tuesday — read out by acting Eskom chairman Zethembe Khoza — the board recounted the events of a board meeting at which the need for a probe was discussed.
“At the board meeting, Mr Tsotsi reported to the board that the Presidency had expressed concern that the impact of Eskom and the power outages on the country was being understated. It was felt that the board should get to the bottom of matters and establish the exact causes of the problems so that it could take decisive action. Mr Tsotsi said that he had been requested to ask the board to authorise an independent external enquiry.”
Board members were not comfortable about this. “Members also felt that if, as the chairperson said, this was a request from the Presidency, it should simply have been a directive to the board from the Presidency or the shareholder representative, in which case the resolution should state that the enquiry [sic] was a request from the Presidency. It was also felt that while deviations from procurement processes were allowed when warranted it would be necessary to understand why the Presidency required this deviation for this committee.”
Khoza said Tsotsi had told the board someone was identified by the Presidency to carry out the board resolution to suspend the executives. This was lawyer Nick Linnell, who Myeni had recommended to Tsotsi.
The utility’s board criticised Tsotsi for procuring the services of Linnell without following proper processes. Some board members believed a fact-finding exercise should have been done before implementing the suspensions to avoid acting against possibly innocent executives.
Khoza also dealt with the R43m contract Eskom entered into with Gupta-owned TNA Media for the utility to sponsor breakfast events, the aborted renegotiation of an information technology contract, the employment and early retirement of former CEO Brian Molefe, the purchase of coal from Optimum Coal Mine and the purchase of Optimum by Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration and Resources.