Brown: Alleged corruption must be probed
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown yesterday said all allegations of corruption at Eskom would be dealt with by the ANC-led government.
Brown was responding to a barrage of criticism from members of the National Council of Province’s select committee on communications and public enterprises yesterday.
She said the Special Investigating Unit will investigate Eskom, including all the procurement practices at the power utility.
All allegations will be investigated, she said.
“We must investigate corruption and those who must be charged must be charged and those who must go to jail must go to jail.”
Opposition parties had lashed out at Brown, some accusing her of being part of the “state capture project of the Guptas”.
“In Eskom we spent R50 billion on coal annually. There are four white companies that get 73% of the R50 billion.
“They have had contracts for 40 years, 23 years in our time and 17 years before that. Only 27% is in the hands of black companies and Guptas have 7% of the 27%,” she said.
She said the director-general in her department has already met with the head of the SIU and the two were working “on a structured process to filter issues, which can be dealt (with) in the department and those that would require independent investigation”. She reiterated her calls for an investigation into the socalled state capture to reverse the downgrades by rating agencies.
“We must confront and overcome the allegations and counter-allegations of corruption in state-owned companies and set about the transformative journey in a climate of (the) highest ethics and responsibility.”
She did not make any mention of the resignation by former Eskom board chairperson Ben Ngubane earlier this week.
But UDM’s Lennox Gaehler said Ngubane could not use his resignation to escape accountability. Gaehler said the state-owned companies had been doing well during the era of Nelson Mandela, but things have changed, as the Gupta family ran the country.
The DA’ s Jacques Julius questioned if Brown had not aided the Guptas in the capture of Denel.
“I don’t trust you. Who is fooling who?” Julius asked.