Eskom against Westinghouse's 'high-handedness'

Johannesburg - Westinghouse Electric Belgium has again withdrawn an urgent application to the Gauteng High Court where it alleged that Eskom was in contempt of a court order granted, by consent of the parties, on the September 5 2014.

This matter will now be moved to the normal court roll to be argued on a date to be allocated by the court.
 
Eskom reiterated in a statement issued on Wednesday that it has provided Westinghouse Electric Belgium, through its attorneys Webber Wentzel, all the relevant documents leading up to and forming the basis of Eskom’s decision to award the tender for the steam generator replacement at the Koeberg nuclear power station.

This information was first provided as part of Eskom’s answering affidavit on September 1 2014 and resulted in Westinghouse Electric Belgium withdrawing its interim interdict application.

Further documentation was provided on September 4 2014, September 10 2014 and on October 14 and 15 2014 respectively.
 
"Over 600 documents have been provided to Westinghouse Electric Belgium’s attorneys, Webber Wentzel. In the spirit of cooperation, but without believing that it was in any way forced to do so by a court order, Eskom provided additional documents that did not form part of the court order," Eskom said.

"When Westinghouse’s attorneys made relentless demands for more confidential and commercially sensitive information, some of which did not even relate to the Eskom decision on August 15 2014, Eskom resisted this high-handed approach, which it viewed as constituting an abuse of court process."
 
According to Eskom "the high-handed and personalised nature of the Westinghouse Electric Belgium approach is unfortunate".

"At no point did Eskom or its representatives seek to undermine an order of the court or act in a manner that demonstrated contempt," said Eskom.

"Eskom remains prepared to defend its rights against this abuse of court process and will continue its vigorous defence of the matter when it is set down to be heard for argument.
Eskom has complied with the letter and the spirit of the order and will now focus on its preparation for the review process."