Eskom pulls plug on Gupta mine ‘lies’

ESKOM board chairperson Ben Ngubane has rejected alle gations of attempts of “undue influence” on former mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi.

“The bare-faced lies by for mer mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi could only be sustained by unsuspecting or decidedly biased minds,” said Ngubane yesterday in response to reports that he and Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe “pressured” the then-mineral resources minister to suspend all mining rights held by Glencore.

On Tuesday, Ramatlhodi said he was prepared to tell a judicial inquiry that Molefe and Ngubane had tried to force him to suspend mining company Glencore’s licences during a period of load shedding.

Ramatlhodi, whose damning revelations coincided with the reinstatement of Molefe as Eskom chief executive after a short stint as an MP, said President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane, was the messenger used by the Gupta family to try to arrange a meeting with him.

Ramatlhodi said he held a meeting with Molefe in 2015, where they discussed Glencore’s R2 billion penalty for supplying Eskom with substandard coal.

At the second meeting, Molefe and Ngubane reportedly insisted Ramatlhodi suspend all Glencore licences pending the payment of the R2bn fine. “I said I’m not going to shut the mine,” Ramatlhodi recounted.

He declined to say if he felt he was being pressured to suspend Glencore’s licence to make way for Optimum, which at the time the Guptas were said to be planning to buy.

But yesterday, Ngubane rejected the allegations, saying: “It is absolutely implausible to suggest that a sitting senior minister could have been bullied by the officials of a state entity.”

Ngubane added: “Why has it only now become opportune to make these damaging allegations? One would have expected that a genuine moralist, which he claims to be, would have brought these serious allegations to the attention of the police and/or the media instantly.”