‘Ill’ Brown not in the House

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, pictured, was not able to answer questions in the National Assembly yesterday because she has taken ill.

“The minister is ill. She has sent an apology to the speaker,” her spokesperson, Colin Cruywagen, told ANA.

Brown was expected to face questions from DA MP Natasha Mazzone and the ANC’s Zoliswa Rantho, who chairs the parliamentary inquiry into the abuse of state funds at Eskom.

The questions stood over from a plenary session last week because Brown was testifying before the inquiry in a six-hour session that saw her deny any knowledge of corruption at the power utility.

Mazzone had been due to ask Brown whether she would resign in the face of mounting allegations of “state capture in state-owned enterprises that report to her and her failure to hold the boards and executives to account”.

Brown has dismissed the inquiry as a kangaroo court and last week told MPs she was testifying despite advice from her lawyers that she was not obliged to do so. She denied evidence from former Eskom chairperson Zola Tsotsi that she met a close business associate of the Guptas at her home.

She said executives had deceived her about irregular payments to the Gupta’s Trillian Capital Holdings and the flawed decisions that allowed former CEO Brian Molefe to claim a R30 million pension payout after leaving Eskom under a cloud in 2016.

Brown’s appearance included a hostile exchange with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan in which he claimed her only response to the allegations was “denial, denial, denial”. – ANA

The minister is ill. She has sent an apology to the speaker. Colin Cruywagen Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown’s spokesperson