OBSTACLES TO REDEMPTION
Lynne Brown is in big trouble. She must lead, but she can’t. She must clean up the mess of corruption that has been breeding at the state-owned companies that fall under her political purview. The public enterprises minister has not only had oversight at Eskom, Transnet and Denel, where corruption has plunged the whole country into junk status; she seems to have been an enabler.
Now the beast of corruption has become so big that it is threatening to swallow her alive. That’s what happens when you overfeed it.
Brown’s biggest headache will be how to deal with Matshela Koko, the Eskom executive who remains on a leave of absence while the utility contemplates his fate. Koko, acting chief executive for the six months to May, was asked to take leave after further allegations of impropriety against him surfaced in March.
He is accused of irregularly awarding multimillionrand contracts to Impulse International, a company in which his stepdaughter owns shares. He did this without disclosing the conflict of interest. Koko’s response was simply to deny the affair. When caught out on the first lie (that he did not know what his daughter did for a living, despite living in the same house as her), he apparently lied again, saying he was not aware of the contract.
Now Eskom has received a legal opinion from law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr recommending a disciplinary hearing against Koko. But it will be hardpressed to conduct a proper, credible disciplinary process against a man who is reputed to be a bully (when outright fibbing doesn’t deliver the desired outcome).
The Impulse International matter is only one of a few that Eskom should have dealt with years ago, if it had any appetite to cut out the corruption in its ranks.
Now Koko’s name also features prominently in the leaked Gupta e-mails — as does that of Anoj Singh, Eskom’s finance director. The top two executives at the utility, dealing with hundreds of billions of rand, seem to have been outed by the e-mails as pawns in the control of the Guptas — for as insignificant an incentive as a R6,000/night hotel stay in a desert.
Neither of them has yet uttered a single word in denial of the allegations of illegal activity contained in the e-mails, or in their defence.
The contents of the e-mails have acquired a status beyond mere allegation — they are prima facie evidence of corruption on the part of all those mentioned.
Singh, allegedly susceptible to such insignificant inducement, is the man who must represent Eskom when it asks the investors to trust the utility with the hundreds of billions of dollars in the funds of widows and orphans.
Tumour of corruption
The duo’s names appear in countless other corruption allegations, including the Dentons report and the public protector’s report on state capture.
If Brown is serious about cleaning up the mess in her department, her starting point must be to cut off the cancerous tumour of corruption that these two have come to represent in the public eye.
But I hold no hope that the matter will be resolved with the speed and precision it deserves.
Brown’s starting point — appointing a board that is dominated by inexperienced academics — does not inspire much confidence. And her amoeba-like behaviour over the past few months provides even less hope.
Killing the beast of corruption will require a bold backbone from Brown. Koko and Singh’s forced departures should be followed by those of the other alleged Gupta minions on the board, starting with chairman Zethembe Khoza.
The beast of corruption has become so big that it is threatening to swallow Brown alive. That’s what happens when you overfeed it