Eskom’s Koko hitting back

Eskom head of generation Matshela Koko has implicated former board chairperson Zola Tsotsi, suggesting he tried to arrange a payment by Eskom of R69 million to a Japanese company in 2014, although Eskom neither had a contract, nor issued a purchase order to warrant the payment.

Tsotsi is only one of the people who earlier implicated Koko in wrongdoing before the parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises that has been investigating governance failures at Eskom. Koko has hit back with counter-allegations of his own.

The detail pertaining to the Japanese company is contained in a written submission that Koko will make in parliament today.

He will also face questions from the evidence leader and members of parliament.

Koko states that his refusal eventually led to his and then-Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona’s suspension in March 2015. Matona and Koko were among four Eskom executives suspended at the time. He is the only one who later returned to service.

The four were not accused of any wrongdoing.

This comes days after government appointed a new Eskom board and directed it “to immediately remove all Eskom executives who are facing allegations of serious corruption and other acts of impropriety, including Mr Matshela Koko and [suspended finance head] Mr Anoj Singh”.

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba called on Koko and Singh to resign, but Koko says he has done nothing wrong. Singh resigned on Monday.

In his submission, Koko further implicated former board member Venete Klein, who apparently asked him to help her husband, Dr Harold Klein, get a contract for his company for the project management of the conversion of Eskom’s diesel-guzzling open-cycle gas turbines to gas.

In her earlier testimony before the committee, Klein painted Koko in a poor light, suggesting he was something of a dictator.

This, Koko says, is based on resentment because he refused to assist her husband.

Klein, in her response to the allegations, said she doesn’t consider it appropriate to respond prior to Koko’s testimony before the committee, but might do so at a later stage. However, she denied any impropriety.

Regarding the Japanese company, Tsotsi told Moneyweb on Monday that Koko’s version of events is “a complete fabrication”.