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Eskom’s head of generation Matshela Koko drew similarities between himself and former prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka, who was accused of being an apartheid spy 15 years ago.
On Wednesday, Koko told the parliamentary inquiry into governance failures at Eskom that as with the accusations against Ngcuka, the allegations of corruption against him were unfounded and were made by people who abused public forums.
Koko had taken exception to Eskom’s suspended head of legal services Suzanne Daniels, who had called him a thief in the inquiry and had testified that he had played a role in procuring payment to Trillian of millions of rands despite Eskom not having a contract with Trillian.
“Her statements to that effect … were lies,” he said. “The truth is to the very contrary [because] it was Ms Daniels who was pivotally involved in procuring payment directly to Trillian of R460 million in circumstances where I, in my capacity as interim group chief executive, had on more than one occasion declined to approve such payment,” he told members of Parliament. He said this had been signed by Daniels.
Koko pleaded with the parliamentary committee to deal with Daniels for calling him a thief.
“It reminds me of an experience of a certain Bulelani Ngcuka, he was called an apartheid spy and everybody believed it. Everybody believed at the time that Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy until we had the benefit of a Hefer Commission and the people who made those allegations under cross examination could not stand and thank God today we know that Bulelani Ngcuka was not a spy. This is a similar experience,” he said.
“The people abuse these forums. [They’re] not under cross examination and come call people thieves.”
Koko also accused Daniels, who appeared before the inquiry last November and another suspended Eskom senior official, Abram Masango, of giving false testimony by claiming that he invited them to a meeting in March 2015 at which Gupta-associate Salim Essa was present. The meeting at Melrose Arch was meant to discuss the pending suspension of four top Eskom executives – then group executive officer Tshediso Matona, chief financial officer Tsholofelo Molefe, group executive for capital Dan Marokane and Koko – by the Zola Tsotsi-led board, according to the two officials. Koko’s version was that he had invited Daniels to a meeting but that Essa was not present. He denied that the meeting with Masango at Melrose Arch, where he allegedly introduced Masango to Essa, took place.
Koko also claimed that he was suspended from Eskom in March 2015 because he refused to follow an unlawful instruction from Tsotsi who wanted him to sign a R69-million deal without a contract. He said Matona had called him in to say he was in trouble for suspending an official who was taking kickbacks from suppliers and was supposed to “unsuspend” the officials, otherwise both of them [Koko and Matona] would be suspended.
Koko also claimed that two months after his suspension, a Mr Khoza and Daniels met him and offered him a severance package of R4.9 million or he would be dismissed, but he refused the offer.
When he appeared before the committee in November, Tsotsi suggested that President Jacob Zuma was behind the suspension of the four top executives in March 2015 which ended in his [Tsotsi’s] own resignation about 10 days later. The former Eskom director painted a picture of a coordinated attempt to control Eskom – that involved Zuma, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, Dudu Myeni and the Gupta brothers – which started shortly after Brown took office in 2014.
He claimed that he was approached by Tony Gupta who requested to meet with him and told him at the meeting: “Chairman, you are not helping us with anything. We are the ones who put you in the position you are in. We are the ones who can take you out.”
He also allegedly received a call from former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni telling him to avail himself for an audience with Zuma. At the said meeting, which allegedly took place at Zuma’s Durban residence and where Tsotsi was allegedly met by Myeni and her son Talente and a Nick Lennell, who was introduced to him as a lawyer, Myeni outlined the purpose of the meeting as being about Eskom’s financial stress and poor technical performance which she allegedly said warranted an inquiry.
“She elaborated that, in the course of the said inquiry, three executives, namely Matona, Marokane and Koko, would have to be suspended.”
Zuma allegedly joined the meeting at a later stage and asked whether Tsotsi knew the executives who were to be suspended.
The executives were suspended a few days later by the Eskom board.
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