Zwane scoffs at coercion remarks

MINERAL Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane dismissed remarks attributed to his predecessor, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, that while in the portfolio he came under pressure from Eskom’s two leaders to help the Gupta family take control of a Glencore coal mine.

Ramatlhodi reportedly claimed that Eskom chairman Ben Ngubane and Brian Molefe, Eskom’s newly returned chief executive, attempted to strong-arm him into blackmailing global resources giant Glencore into selling a mine to the Guptas.

Zwane said it was unthinkable that a minister could be coerced into an action.

“I think we must dispel this notion of revolutionaries being pressed to do things they don’t want to do,” he told a media briefing ahead of his budget vote speech.

“I will allow the former minister to answer on what he says.”

Ngubane reportedly also dismissed Ramathlodi’s comments.

“For a minister to now claim that we actually made him take a decision about something is preposterous.”

Ngubane was talking to journalists on the sidelines of the Africa Utility Week conference in the city, which he had opened in Molefe’s stead earlier in the day.

Ngubane was forced to field questions from members of the press after apologising for the Eskom chief executive’s failure to give the welcome address. Delegates and media were disappointed at the last minute when they heard that Molefe was busy elsewhere and would not make what would have been one of his first public appearances since the Eskom board’s decision on Friday to reappoint him to the helm of Eskom after a short stint as an ANC MP.

He resigned from Eskom late last year in the midst of allegations that he was too close to the Gupta family, who stand accused of exercising undue influence at the highest levels of government in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report.

The report suggested that Eskom favoured the Guptas’ Tegeta Exploration over Glencore as a coal supplier.

Ngubane laughed off suggestions that Molefe might be embarrassed by the backlash over the board’s decision to reinstate him. He defended the chief executive’s reinstatement, saying: “He is going to carry on where he stopped: making electricity affordable for our people.”

He added that Molefe should be given credit for saving the country from electricity blackouts.