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Ethiopian proposal, which contravenes what was be held under the auspices of the African Union.
agreed upon during the African Union summit,” The summit was attended by observers from
it said. the US, the European Union and the African
Egypt had over the last few weeks accused Union, which have all attempted this year to
Ethiopia of procrastinating over any agreement, broker a deal.
and had repeatedly called on international bod- Ethiopia began construction at the 6,500-
ies to intervene. MW GERD in 2011. Egypt and Sudan view the
Leaders from the three countries agreed at an dam as a threat to vital water supplies, while Ethi-
African Union summit on July 21 to press ahead opia considers it crucial for its electrification and
with negotiations from July 27. development.
The exchanges were made at a meeting of It recently announced that it had started to fill
technical and legal committees from the three the dam, although it explained that it was sea-
countries that aimed to push ahead for an agree- sonal rainfall, rather than any actual water filling
ment on operating of the GERD. This meeting by the Ethiopian contractors, that had caused
represented the second round of negotiations to water levels to rise.™

ESKOM

Eskom takes Gupta interests to

court in state capture claim

SOUTH AFRICA ESKOM is to take the Gupta family to court to alternatively irregular, diversion of resources
recoup at least ZAR3.8bn ($212mn) from former from Eskom,” it said.
Eskom directors, executives, contractors and Eskom said it reserved the right to pursue
consultants, and a former government minister. other individuals and entities, or to join others
The action is being taken by the current to this action.
Eskom management, which claims that peo- The utility said that Gupta-associated inter-
ple close to the Gupta family and companies it ests had achieved “state capture” through Eskom,
ran siphoned off the cash during their purchase and were able to channel billions of rand through
in 2015 of Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH), a a network of subsidiary companies.
major coal supplier to Eskom, from Glencore. “This delictual claim for damages that Eskom
Eskom said yesterday that it had worked suffered relates to the recovery of approximately
with the police Special Investigating Unit (SIU) ZAR3.8bn in funds illegally diverted from
to issue summons in the North Gauteng High Eskom to help the Gupta family and its associates
Court to recover the funds. to acquire the operations of OCH, which owned
Eskom alleges that the conspirators strong- Optimum Coal Mining that supplied the Hend-
armed Glencore into selling Optimum, and then rina power station with coal,” Eskom said.
effectively financed the acquisition by providing “The further delictual claim for damages
guarantees and prepayments to the Gupta-con- pertains to the payments that were unlawfully
trolled buyer, Tegeta Exploration and Resources, made to Trillian (Capital Partners) by Eskom
said South Africa’s amaBhungane, a unretaliative executives.”
journalism centre that uncovered much of the With debts of ZAR450bn ($25bn), Eskom is
corruption. keen to recover as much as it can from the years
The defendants in the damages claim are for- under former President Jacob Zuma, when it
mer Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe, former was accused of being a major source of corrupt
chief financial officer Anoj Singh, former group practices.
executive for generation Matshela Koko and for- When South African President Cyril Rama-
mer company secretary Suzanne Daniels. phosa took office, he overhauled Eskom’s
Eskom also seeks damages against for- management and board, as well as putting in a
mer board chairperson Ben Ngubane, former stronger regime of oversight.
board members Chwayita Mabude and Mark As well as rooting out corruption and cutting
Pamensky. the influence of Zuma-influenced ANC figures,
Former mineral resources minister Mose- Ramaphosa has spearheaded Eskom’s plans to
benzi Zwane, consultant Salim Essa, and the split up the company into generation, trans-
Gupta brothers Tony, Atul and Ajay have also mission and distribution entities. This aims to
been cited as co-defendants. cut debt, improve operational efficiency and to
“These 12 defendants acted in a con- reduce corruption.™
certed effort whose objective was the corrupt,

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 06•August•2020