Eskom and SIU go after bigwig officials and Guptas

Eskom and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) are going after members of the Gupta family, former Eskom executives, board members and other associates – including former government officials – in an effort to recoup R3.8 billion that the power utility lost when the Gupta family acquired Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH). 

In a joint statement released on Monday Eskom and the SIU said they had filed a summons in the North Gauteng High Court to recover an estimated R3.8 billion that was diverted from the power utility “to help the Gupta family and its associates to acquire the operations of OCH, which owned the Optimum Coal Mining”. 

“The further delictual claim for damages pertains to the payments that were unlawfully made to Trillian by Eskom Executives.”

Who exactly

In the statement, Eskom lists 12 defendants for the current case. 

“All of the former executives and Board members breached their fiduciary duty of care and good faith to Eskom, and acted in a concerted State Capture effort with the Gupta Brothers, Mosebenzi Zwane and Salim Aziz Essa to illegally divert funds from Eskom,” the statement read.

Gupta brothers 

  • Rajesh Tony Gupta;
  •  Atul Gupta and Ajay Gupta

Former Eskom executives

  • Brian Molefe (Group Chief Executive Officer);
  •  Anoj Singh (Chief Financial Officer); 
  • Matshela Moses Koko (Group Executive: Generation and former Acting Group Chief Executive Officer);
  • Suzanne Margaret Daniels (Company Secretary and Group Legal Head).

Former Eskom board members: 

  • Baldwin Ben Ngubane (Board Chairman); 
  • Chwayita Mabude (Board Member); 
  • Mark Vivian Pamensky (Board Member);

Associates 

  •  Mosebenzi Zwane (Former Minister of Mineral Resources);
  • Salim Aziz Essa (Businessman and Gupta friend).

What happened

The sale of the coal mine which supplies Hendrina power station took place between 2015 and 2016. At the time it was owned by Glencore who had placed the mine in business rescue after failing to renegotiate the price of its long-term coal contract with Eskom and was facing an over R2 billion penalty for providing poor quality coal to the utility. 

The former Eskom executives and Zwane and Essa were involved in a web of discussions and transactions which eventually led to Glencore’s forced sale of Optimum to Tegeta Resources and Explorations which was largely owned by Gupta mining firm Oakbay Investments Limited and Fidelity Enterprises. 

In testimony before the state capture commission former mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi testified that  Ngubane had threatened to report him to former President Jacob Zuma because he refused to revoke Glencore’s mining licenses in 2015. 

This exchange happened in a meeting that was attended by Molefe at a time when the Gupta’s were actively trying to purchase the mine. 

Zurich

A week later Ramatlhodi said Zuma “promoted” him to the Department of Public Service and Administration while the sale of Optimum took place when Zwane was minister of Mineral Resources. 

The commission also heard how from former Glencore SA CEO Clinton Ephron how Zwane and Essa and Tony Gupta travelled to Switzerland where they had a number of meetings with Glencore’s group CEO Ivan Glasenberg in Zurich where they doubled the initial offer to buy Optimum. The new price tag was R2.1 billion

This purchase had to be assisted by Eskom giving the Gupta-linked Tegeta a pre-payment of R600 million for coal when on the day of purchase the firm did not have enough to close the Optimum acquisition.

Following the revelations around state capture, the Gupta brother and Essa fled the country and are now based in Dubai.

“These 12 defendants acted in a concerted effort whose objective was the corrupt, alternatively irregular, diversion of resources from Eskom. As a result of their actions in the acquisition of OCH during this period, Eskom suffered at least R3.8 billion in losses which it is legally obliged and morally burdened to recover, together with the interest thereon,” said Eskom and the SIU.

Source: moneyweb.co.za