Eskom duo scoff at claim

‘GRAFT’: EX-MINISTER CITES BLACKMAIL BID TO SCORE MINE FOR GUPTAS

Says board chair Ngubane, then CEO Molefe wanted him to squeeze Glencore.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane yesterday 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, the former mineral resources minister, reportedly claimed earlier in the day that Eskom chairperson Ben Ngubane and Brian Molefe, the state-owned utility’s newly-reappointed chief executive, attempted to strongarm 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 doing something he did not want to do. “I will allow the former minister to answer about what he said,” he added.

Ngubane also dismissed Ramathlodi’s comments. “My office told me the minister claims that we forced him. He claims something that is impossible. We cannot tell a minister what to do. We take orders from ministers,” the Eskom chairperson was quoted as saying. “For a minister to now claim that we actually made him take a decision about something is preposterous.”

Ngubane was talking on the sidelines of the Africa Utility Week conference in Cape Town, which he opened in Molefe’s stead.

Molefe resigned from Eskom late last year amid allegations he was too close to the Gupta family, who are 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 Eskom bent over backwards to favour the Guptas’ Tegeta Exploration over Glencore as a coal supplier.

Ngubane defended Molefe’s reinstatement, saying: “He is going to carry on where he stopped: making electricity affordable for our people.”

Molefe also ended electricity blackouts, he added. – ANA