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Eskom faces $121mn consultancy probe

SOUTH AFRICA ESKOM is facing a parliamentary probe into she had arranged visas for Koko and two of his
ZAR1.8bn ($121mn) in fictitious consultancy family members to travel to Dubai.
fees it paid to McKinsey and Trillian as part of Daniels also said that Eskom executive Prish
wider accusations into State Capture corruption Govender, CFO Anoj Singh and chief procure-
at the state-owned utility. ment officer Edwin Mabelane had approved pay-
Eskom whistle-blower Suzanne Daniels told ments to the consultants, despite there being no
the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture signed contract.
this week that the payout was made by Eskom But it turned out there never was a contract
despite the utility having no contract with the with McKinsey and Trillian.
consulting companies. The issue centres on a payments made by
Daniels said that in 2016 the then act- Eskom, even though no services were provided
ing Eskom CEO, Matshela Koko, had a list of by the two consultants.
transactions with projections of revenue to be In total, Eskom is looking to recover
extracted from Eskom. ZAR3.8bn ($255mn) from companies associated
Daniels said Koko had said he was given the with the Gupta family. Eskom maintains that the
list by his “principals”, which she understood to money was siphoned off during the purchase
mean the Eskom board. in 2015 of Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH), a
However, she rejected Koko’s earlier testi- major coal supplier to Eskom, from Glencore.
mony that the document, which included items The issue is central to the State Capture scan-
such as “online vending cash unlock”, a supplier dal surrounding Eskom and previous South
contract for Duvha power station unit three, African government.
IT support services, and a BEE partner for coal New CEO Andre de Ruyter has been brought
supplier Anglo American, was prepared by the in to improve management and to lead attempts
board. to recover some of the lost money.
She said the document did not look like an With debts of ZAR450bn ($25bn), Eskom is
instruction “from an Eskom person” and tied in keen to recover as much as it can from the years
with what former Trillian CEO Mosilo Mothepu under former President Jacob Zuma, when it
told the commission about fee extraction. was accused of being a major source of corrupt
Trillian Holdings was a company owned by practices.
Salim Essa, who was a dealmaker for the Gupta When South African President Cyril Rama-
brothers. Through Trillian Holdings, Essa had a phosa took office, he overhauled Eskom’s
60% stake in Trillian Capital Partners. management and board, as well as putting in a
The commission asked whether the list would stronger regime of oversight.
have been from a third party outside Eskom with As well rooting out corruption and cutting
revenue projections they sought to procure from the influence of Zuma-influenced ANC figures,
Eskom. Ramaphosa has spearheaded Eskom’s plans to
“That is my evidence,” said Daniels. split up the company into generation, transmis-
Daniels said that she rejected Koko’s evidence sion and distribution entities by December 2022.
that it was she who had prepared the list under This aims to cut debt, improve operational effi-
direction from the board. ciency and to reduce corruption™
She also firmly rejected Koko’s evidence that

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