South Africa News

How Eskom bosses fed Guptas secret info to bag big business

E-mails between Gupta business associates and former Eskom executives have laid bare the influence the family had over contractual agreements and even media statements issued by the parastatal.
The family and their associates were also made privy to confidential information relating to various programmes within Eskom through which they could score business, according to Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza.
We at Eskom hold the view that [after] having being suspended, Koko was brought in and he had to demonstrate his capability and his allegiance to the capturers [showing] what he can do.”

Mabuza then described various emails between Koko and Essa between 7:56am and 8:01am on July 20.

The first email, sent at 7:56am, contained a document that was a year old at the time. The document comprised a response from National Treasury directing public entities on how to contain their costs.
The second, only a minute later, outlined the approval conditions for Eskom’s Top Engineers Programme.
The third, sent at 8:01, seems to be a “resend” of Koko’s first email to Essa.
The fourth, sent immediately afterwards, contains a resolution by Eskom’s executive committee on the Top Engineers Programme and presents a business case for it. It also speaks about the external support required to design the project.

Matshela Koko
“The pattern we are picking up here is on this day, on returning to office, Koko sells this material to Essa to demonstrate to Essa what business opportunities exist in Eskom. This is where certain work was then given to McKinsey, this is how Trillian was inserted to offer the business opportunity,” Mabuza said.

What should not be lost in this is [that] these were classified documents. These are now documents in the hands of an external party. It now tells the external party: This is the opportunity, and when you quote for this job, please do it in these guidelines … The intention was to create business opportunities for specific people for a specific reason.”

Mabuza’s testimony is continuing.

Source: IOL