Ex-Eskom CFO acted alone

FORMER Eskom chief financial officer (CFO) Anoj Singh allegedly acted unilaterally by giving the Gupta-owned mine Tegeta Exploration and Resources more than R1.68 billion to purchase the Glencore-owned Optimum Coal Holdings in 2015.

It is believed that the former Eskom board had at the time decided to offer a pre-purchase payment of coal to Optimum Coal Mine in a bid to assist it in dealing with its liability and liquidity challenges.

It is also thought that the deal was to ensure that the company continued to provide coal to help Eskom keep the lights on but that Singh undermined the decision in less than 24 hours.

This was the testimony of former Eskom head of legal and compliance Suzanne Daniels at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture yesterday.

Daniels told the commission that Eskom board members voted on December 9, 2015, to allow the power utility to conduct a pre-purchase payment of coal to Optimum, which at the time was experiencing liability and liquidity problems.

According to Daniels the R1.6bn was supposed to be paid to Optimum and not Tegeta.

The commission also heard that the Eskom’s investment and financial committee had endorsed the pre-purchase payment on the grounds that it would allow Optimum Coal Mine to operate at a maximum level and pay its obligations to its creditors.

“Mr Singh did not have the approval of the board when he used the R1.6 billion as a guarantee to Tegeta. I realised the change after the Eskom Group treasury issued a memorandum that Eskom and Tegeta had a performance guarantee agreement. It was not a mandate by the board,” she said.

Ironically, the commission also heard that the R1.6bn guarantee to Tegeta on December 10, 2015 coincided with Glencore agreeing to sell Optimum Coal Holdings to Tegeta.

In her earlier testimony, said she took up employment with the power utility on October 1, 2015 as a company’s secretary.

But according to evidence before the commission, Oakbay and Tegeta did not have money to purchase the Optimum Coal Mine, which was Eskom’s main supplier for coal.

Detailing version of the dubious events evidence leader advocate Pule Seleka – during Daniels’ testimony – told the commission how the deal was hatched, saying that Optimum was under business rescue.

During that process, Eskom officials who include Daniels set up a memorandum in which the power utility was going to pre-purchase coal from Optimum for a period of 12 months, amounting to R1.6bn.

According to the heading of the memorandum, the prepayment of R1.6bn was initially supposed to be paid to Optimum but ended with the Guptas-owned Tegeta Mine.

Seleka said Tegeta used the R1.6bn as guarantee to the business rescue practitioners that they have the financial muscle to purchase Optimum Coal Holdings.

This was confirmed by Daniels in her testimony, but she blamed it all on former Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko and Singh.

According to her, both Koko and Singh were the authors of the memorandum.

She denied former Eskom board chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane’s version that she initiated the Eskom’s board meeting including drafting the memorandum.

“I received a call from Dr Ngubane, who said I must organise a board meeting for the drafting of the memorandum … . I drafted two versions of the memorandum. On each version, I handed them to the executives who made the changes. They made changes to the final version which allowed Eskom to purchase coal from Tegeta,” said Daniels.