Eskom’s alleged foul play
FORMER mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi has thrown down the gauntlet to President Jacob Zuma, saying he’s not afraid to repeat his explosive claims in a judicial commission of inquiry that Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe and chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane interfered in his work.
Yesterday Ramatlhodi told The Mercury’s sister newspaper, The Star, that he was prepared to tell a judicial inquiry that Molefe and Ngubane tried to force him to suspend mining company Glencore’s licences at the time the country was going through bouts of load shedding.
Ramatlhodi’s allegations prompted ANC alliance partners, the SA Communist Party and Cosatu, to reiterate their calls yesterday for Zuma to step down.
Ramatlhodi said he held a meeting with Molefe in 2015 where they discussed Glencore’s R2 billion penalty for supplying Eskom with substandard coal.
“Brian (Molefe) was not keen to meet with Glencore and therefore I was mediating (in) that matter. He was receptive to my ideas,” said Ramatlhodi.
“However, after my meeting with Brian, the chairman (Ngubane) insisted that they wanted another meeting with me. That’s when I realised that this was going to be a serious meeting, so I brought in my DG (director-general) and DDGs (deputies director-general). There are witnesses to the meeting.”
Dr Thibedi Ramontja was director-general in the Department of Mineral Resources and resigned in December 2015, citing “personal reasons”.
At the second meeting Molefe and Ngubane reportedly insisted that Ramatlhodi should suspend all the Glencore mining licences pending the payment of the R2bn fine. A suspension of all of Glencore’s licences would have reportedly brought Glencore’s 14 coal operations to a standstill and risked 35 000 jobs.
“I said ‘I’m not going to shut the mines’.”
The Eskom board chairperson then reportedly said he would have to report on their meeting to Zuma straight away, as the president was leaving on a foreign trip.
Zuma went to China on September 2, 2015, and upon his return, Ramatlhodi was moved from being mineral resources minister to the Public Service Administration portfolio. He was replaced at the crucial mining portfolio by ANC MP Mosebenzi Zwane, who is alleged to be linked to the Guptas.
Yesterday, Ramatlhodi said that if he was asked to repeat his claims in a judicial commission of inquiry, he would gladly do so.
“If I’m asked to tell the truth, I will do so, I will tell the truth in front of anybody,” he said.
Asked if he was being forced to suspend Glencore to make way for Optimum, which at the time the Guptas were said to be planning to buy, Ramatlhodi said: “I prefer to put my views to myself on that matter.”
Then-public protector Thuli Madonsela had recommended a judicial commission be set up to investigate allegations that Molefe favoured the Guptas in the award of coal tenders at Eskom.
Speaking on eNCA, Ramatlhodi said he had refused an invitation by Zuma’s son Duduzane to meet Ajay Gupta, his business partner.
“One thing‚ since I became minister of mineral resources the Guptas tried to have meetings with me. I refused those meetings. I simply told them to bug off.” When asked who was the messenger who tried to arrange the meetings, Ramatlhodi said: “Duduzane‚ the president’s son.
“I said I would report this back to his father (President Zuma), this discussion. I went back to the president and said I have had this discussion and that I refused to meet with this guy.”
Ramatlhodi said Zuma said, “It’s okay‚ there is no problem”. He said that he never co-operated with the Guptas.
However, Eskom board spokesperson Khulani Qoma said they were “puzzled” by the timing of Ramatlhodi’s allegations.
“If he is such a moralist, he should have said them at the time they happened and report it to the police. Why is it convenient now to raise the allegations?” asked Qoma.
Qoma said he had spoken to Ngubane about the matter. “He says the allegations are untrue, he rejects those allegations,” he said.
Yesterday, Ngubane told journalists on the sidelines of the African Utility Week conference in Cape Town that Ramatlhodi’s allegations were untrue and preposterous.
Zuma’s spokesperson, Dr Bongani Ngqulunga, Molefe and Ramontja, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
When contacted for comment, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said before he cut off the call: “Ngoako has spoken, he is a member of the ANC. What do you want me to say?”