Eskom’s Matshela Koko denies wrongdoing, again
‘Sound governance can be undermined’
Eskom’s head of generation, Matshela Koko, was the second senior executive in as many days to protest his innocence of any involvement in the state capture of the utility. Yesterday, Koko appeared before the parliamentary inquiry into state capture being conducted by the public enterprises portfolio committee.
He testified about the purchase of Optimum Coal Mine by the Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration and Resources from Glencore‚ the R659-million prepayment that Eskom paid to Tegeta for coal supplies and corporate governance at the company.
Koko denied being part of an alleged strategy to use Eskom’s resources to build up Tegeta as a significant coal company‚ and denied being involved in corruption.
“In any organisation‚ and possibly more so in an organisation of Eskom’s size‚ extent and geographical reach‚ policies and procedures that seek to achieve sound corporate governance can be undermined and circumvented by dishonest and corrupt officials at various levels within the organisation,” said Koko. “Such conduct also occurs at Eskom and has‚ unfortunately‚ occurred also at senior levels of management within Eskom.
He criticised what he said were “the many falsehoods and misleading reports published about me that are‚ on my reading‚ part of a frenzied campaign calculated to break Eskom and to discredit the government.
“I have been caught in the crossfire and‚ arising from the simple magnitude of the campaign‚ have been unable to defend myself against it. It has all been very‚ very hurtful.”
Koko said it was his attempts to root out corruption in the Medupi and Kusile projects that led to allegations of wrongdoing on his part.
He described the background to the purchase by Tegeta of Optimum in December 2015‚ emphasising that this was in the best interests of Eskom as it secured coal supplies to the Hendrina power station.
“Eskom exhibited a determination to maximise its economic benefits from any deal to be struck.
“The benefits derived from the deal arose from Eskom’s insistence that Optimum continue to deliver coal to it at R150 per tonne until December 2018.”
This deal was struck in the context of Glencore’s demands that the price be doubled to R300 per tonne to ensure the continued operations of Optimum.
If not‚ the company warned, Optimum would have to be put into liquidation. Koko said Eskom’s stance was that it was “not going to succumb to Glencore’s strong-arm tactics”.
He also noted that it was a suggestion of the Department of Mineral Resources‚ under Mosebenzi Zwane‚ that Eskom made a substantial prepayment to the buyers of the Optimum Coal Holdings mines for future coal supplies. Prepayments to secure coal supplies were accepted Eskom policy.
Falsehoods about me are calculated to break Eskom