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Cape Town - Former public protector Thuli Madonsela's long-awaited state capture report has exposed a web of dealings between the Eskom and the Gupta family, including damning details of the relationship between Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and the controversial Indian brothers.
It shows among other findings that cellphone tracking records placed Molefe at or near the Guptas' Saxonwold compound 19 times between August 5 and November 2015.
The report also revealed that Molefe and Ajay Gupta, the eldest of three Gupta brothers, made 58 telephone calls to one another between August 2015 and March 2016.
Madonsela's report entitled State of Capture released on Wednesday also nailed Eskom over a prepayment of almost R1bn made to Gupta-owned Tegeta Resources & Energy for a coal tender to supply Arnot Power Station. The money was allegedly used to buy Optimum Coal Mine (OCM) from Glencore and may be corrupt, illegal and amount to fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the report found.
Madonsela said Glencore appears to have been severely prejudiced by Eskom’s actions in refusing to sign a new agreement with them for the supply of coal to Hendrina Power Station.
“It appears that the conduct of Eskom was solely for the purposes of forcing OCM/OCH (Optimum Coal Holdings) into business rescue and financial distress,” she said.
“It appears that the conduct of Eskom was solely to the benefit of Tegeta in that they forced the sale of OCH to Tegeta by stating that OCM could be sold alone,” she said. “Thereafter, it appears, they have allowed Tegeta to proceed with the sale of a portion of OCH in the form of the Optimum Coal Terminal.
"This may constitute a contravention of section 50(2) of the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act) in that they acted solely for the benefit of one company.”
President Jacob Zuma's son Dudzane is a business partner of the Guptas and holds shares in Tegeta.
