Parliament - The ANC's investment wing Chancellor House should
ideally not do business with government, Deputy President Kgalema
Motlanthe said on Wednesday.
Replying to questions in the National Assembly, he said
Chancellor House should not be advantaged because it is the investment
wing of the African National Congress.
Motlanthe was responding to Lance Greyling of the
Independent Democrats, who pointed out that the delay in construction at
the Medupi power station is mainly due to Hitachi Power Africa being
unable to fulfil its obligations to supply boilers in the specified time
period.
The delay would be over a year, he said.
Chancellor House has a 25% stake in Hitachi Power Africa.
"So essentially, this massive conflict of interests is
now threatening our energy security, with dire consequences for our
economy."
Greyling wanted an assurance that Chancellor House
would not have shares in any company given tenders in the proposed
nuclear build programme, or any of the infrastructure build projects.
Motlanthe said Chancellor House is a company and engages in economic activity inside and outside South Africa.
"Ideally, it should not do business with government at all," he said.
"They did not put their money in Hitachi Africa to
produce boilers for Eskom. Hitachi Africa got the contract later. Those
are the facts."
Ideally, they should never do business with the
government. The market is large enough. Chancellor House could do
business anywhere and everywhere in the private sector.
But, for example, investors put their money in a bank,
which put it in a unit trust, which in turn put it into a company. "You
have no control over that."
Where there is clear evidence of the processes being manipulated, the ANC would be the first to say it has to be dealt with.
"And we say that Chancellor House should not do so, it
should not do business in a way which gives it an advantage because it
is an investment wing of the African National Congress. That shouldn't
happen," Motlanthe said.