Ngubane blames woes on factions in ANC

‘When people think you are aligned to somebody, they want to hunt you down’

BELEAGUERED former Eskom chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane says he and Brian Molefe were a target of attacks because of their closeness to President Jacob Zuma.

Ngubane, who resigned from the Eskom board this week, told Independent Media his woes had to do with factions in the ANC.

The former KwaZulu-Natal premier charged that he was “more than ready” for the parliamentary inquiry into Eskom, but warned he would not take “useless questions”.

He confirmed he once had a business relationship with the Guptas.

Ngubane and Molefe, the former Eskom chief executive officer, have been fingered in allegations of state capture. They are accused of favouring the Gupta family in awarding coal contracts at the power utility but have denied this.

Ngubane surprisingly quit on Monday in the wake of the storm caused by the reappointment of Molefe to Eskom.

Political parties including the ANC, DA and IFP have accused Ngubane of trying to escape answering the committee’s questions.

Ngubane, who said he had resigned to go into a private business, hit back, saying he was the first to call for a probe into allegations against the board. He said Molefe was also persecuted because of his links to Zuma.

“Everybody has been saying I am aligned to the president, that my president is my cousin and all sort of rubbish.

“He is my friend, so why on earth am I going to say I don’t like him?,” he said.

“This absolutely has something to do with the camps within the ANC. In the case of Brian, it has been very much impacted by that, and in my case as well.

“When people think you are aligned to somebody, they want to hunt you down.”

Ngubane said he was ready for the parliamentary inquiry and challenged the members of the committee to conduct thorough research into Eskom’s business dealings before putting together questions.

“They must send their accountants to Eskom to look at all the documentation regarding procurement agreements before they call us to the committee and ask us useless questions.

“They must have investigated beforehand to prepare for that hearing, otherwise it is a kangaroo thing where people would just be insulting us and trying to humiliate us,” he said.

Ngubane said Eskom was still being dragged into the mud, although the board had performed well, rescuing the company from years of bankruptcy.