‘Probe state capture, JZ’
– Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown is sticking to her guns, insisting that an inquiry be held into the alleged capture of state-owned companies.
She testified before parliament’s public enterprises committee and said that, in her personal opinion, President Jacob Zuma should give such an inquiry the green light, particularly as regards Eskom.
Giving an update before the committee on the performance of state-owned companies, Brown indicated she had taken reports by the previous public protector to heart.
Former public protector Thuli Madonsela found irregularities with Eskom’s coal deal with Tegeta, a Gupta family business, which appeared to have been favoured.
“It’s the president’s prerogative, but it remains my view there should be a commission, and there should be an inquiry, because an inquiry is the only way we are going to be able to put all the matters on the table,” Brown said, also referring to other stateowned companies.
Following the State of Capture report release, Brown had sent a letter to all board members of Eskom, SA Express, arms company Denel, mining entity Alexkor and others, to encourage them to declare conflicts of interest.
Following the letter, four board members of Eskom resigned.
“They won’t give any reasons for leaving, but my letter … comes around that time. I don’t think it’s necessary to raise the issues, because they haven’t told me. They just resigned around the same time as the letter, so I’m leaving it there,” Brown said.
DA MP Natasha Mazzone was the first to ask about the State of Capture report, calling it an elephant in the room.
Brown said it was no joke either that the Denton Report, which pointed to the shocking financial state of Eskom, had never been released in its entirety, but only in a draft and redacted form.
Brown said the commitee should call Eskom to talk through things in the yet-to-be-made public report.
Meanwhile, Brown reminded the committee Eskom was “keeping the lights on” every day, with more than 4 000Mw extra capacity. – ANA