‘Plot to delay Molefe hearing’
A SUSPENDED Eskom executive has alleged in parliament that the Guptas, with the help of a deputy minister and Duduzane Zuma conspired to delay court proceedings against Brian Molefe until after next month.
The bombshell was dropped by Suzanne Daniels, the suspended head of legal compliance at Eskom, who was testifying before the parliamentary committee probing the alleged capture of Eskom by the Guptas.
She told the public enterprises committee that Ajay Gupta and Deputy Public Enterprises Minister Ben Martins told a meeting at a Melrose townhouse about moves to talk to “someone” in the office of the Gauteng deputy judge president to delay the case against Molefe.
Daniels, who was suspended only last month, said she had been invited for coffee by Gupta associate Salim Essa on July 29 this year.
Daniels met Essa at the Melrose Arch complex before walking to a nearby townhouse where Ajay Gupta, Martins, Duduzane and an unknown Chinese woman were sitting in the lounge.
She said it had been clear the meeting was not a formal one as Gupta had been wearing casual clothes.
“I was praying to God they would not kill me. I thought I had walked into a trap,” Daniels told MPs.
She said they had been discussing the court processes against former Eskom boss Molefe and Gupta had asked her where the matter stood.
Daniels said she had told him that a meeting with the office of Gauteng North High Court Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba had been scheduled to discuss when the matter would be set down as the EFF, DA and Solidarity had joined the case.
Daniels said Ajay Gupta had then spoken of how he would approach someone in the office of the DJP to delay the case until after next month.
This has been seen as Gupta’s attempt to keep the case from the public domain in the days leading to the ANC elective conference next month.
“He said he would have to talk to someone in the DJP’s office to make sure the meeting only takes place after December 2017.
“He said something about Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma but I didn’t follow, partly because I just couldn’t believe where I was and what I was hearing.”
She said she had left shortly thereafter, driven home, poured a stiff whisky and gone to bed.
ANC MP Pravin Gordhan proposed that the committee should write to Ledwaba’s office, “so they are aware of the abuse of these sorts of things” in the context of state capture.
Daniels said it was clear Gupta was trying to figure out a way to find someone to get the matter heard later.
“As attorneys, we know that if you’re nice to the registrar they might make a date that suits you,” she said.
However, she said following the meeting “I instructed the legal team to make damn sure we get the matter heard before December 2017. It is set down for November 29.
“After that day, I am very convinced state capture is real,” she told the committee.