Brown slams ‘secrecy’ at Eskom
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown was in the firing line in Parliament yesterday when she defended her decisions at Eskom.
Brown’s grilling in the inquiry into state capture came after the portfolio committee on public enterprises agreed to call President Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane and the Gupta brothers to give evidence.
This followed the explosive evidence of former Eskom board chairperson Zola Tsotsi that Zuma had ordered him to suspend four executives at the power utility.
Brown denied any links to the Guptas having a hand in the appointment of board members at Eskom.
She also washed her hands of the pension funds given to former Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe.
Brown accused Eskom of hiding information from her, including the R600 million which was paid to the Guptalinked company Trillian.
The minister said she had been reported to the public protector and the ethics committee in Parliament for lying in the House after Eskom gave her wrong information.
This was after Brown said, in a reply in Parliament, that Eskom had not paid any money to Trillian.
She said that as a result, chief financial officer Anoj Singh was suspended as he had given her the wrong answer.
“I wouldn’t know if it was fabricated or not, but I feel there is a level of secrecy in the company that is difficult to get through.
“I am before the public protector and the ethics committee because I received that information from Eskom,” said Brown, adding she was lied to by Eskom regarding Trillian.
“I believe Eskom deliberately lied to me on the Trillian matter.”
Brown insisted that Molefe had resigned from Eskom despite the latter saying he took early retirement.
The matter will be heard in the Pretoria High Court next week.
Brown also denied she had consulted the Guptas on matters related to Eskom.
She said the boards were appointed by the cabinet after she had received a list from the department.
She said it was strange that Tsotsi had attended a meeting with Zuma in Durban without consulting her.
Brown also warned the committee not to conduct a witchhunt against her or anyone else.
She said that despite receiving legal opinion that she must not testify before the committee due to prejudice and perceived predetermined outcomes, she had decided to give evidence.
This, she said, was because of her responsibility as a minister.
This is the same statement Brown made last week after the suspended head of legal matters at Eskom, Suzanne Daniels, made allegations against her.
Brown accused the committee of failing to interrogate Daniels on key issues at Eskom.
She said that if the committee had done this, some of the information on what happened would have come out.