LIVE FEED: #StateCaptureInquiry March 5, 2019

Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters./African News Agency

Picture: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters./African News Agency

Published Mar 5, 2019

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Johannesburg - The Zondo commission will on Tuesday morning continue hearing evidence regarding state capture at state-owned power utility Eskom. 

On Monday, the commission entered its second week of probing the power utility and deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, who chairs the inquiry, heard from several Eskom witnesses. 

On Tuesday two witnesses are expected to take the stand. Snehal Nagar and Gerrad Opperman work for Eskom's energy division. 

So far the commission has dealt with the controversial Huarong deal and Eskom's involvement in coal mining with the Gupta family's Tegeta company.

Monday's Eskom's corporate specialist in the treasury department Sincedile Shweni told the commission how the SA Reserve Bank was misled into approving an R25 billion loan deal between Eskom and Huarong. 

Eskom had applied for the SARB to approve the deal which would allow Eskom to sign off on a facilities agreement with Chinese company Huarong. 

The deal was part of an R25 billion loan that Eskom would receive from Huarong Energy Africa, a Chinese and South African consortium. 

The money was meant to enable Eskom to maintain its powers stations. 

The deal would have committed Eskom to pay about $19 million, which amounts to over R200 million, immediately after the deal was signed. 

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Eskom board chair Jabu Mbauza testified on last week Monday and told the commission that when the new Eskom board took over in January 2018 it found a company that was the “main theatre where corruption/state capture took place”.

Mabuza's testimony was largely based on what the new Eskom board, which was appointed in January 2018, found when it took over. 

He said the state-owned enterprise was the theatre where state capture took place. He outlined the various disciplinary charges that were brought against now former Eskom officials such as Matshela Koko and Susan Daniels. 

He told the commission how Koko and Daniels shared confidential Eskom documents with Gupta linked Salim Essa. 

The inquiry heard how Gupta linked coal company Tegeta was not in a financial position to be awarded an R4 billion coal contract by Eskom.

Daniel Mashigo, the acting general manager for the primary division at Eskom, told the commission that based on the financial assessment that was done on Tegeta it was clear that the contract should not have been awarded. 

Tegeta, a Gupta linked which owned mining coal company Optimum, had signed an over R4 billion contract to supply Eskom with coal. Advocate Kate Hofmeyr, for the commission's legal team, said evidence has shown how the signing of this contract was rushed and Eskom staff were told to get it done within 25 hours. 

Former Glencore CEO Clinton Ephron to the commission how the mining giant Glencore was pressured into selling not just its Optimum coal mine but all the assets held in its Optimum Holdings to the Gupta's Oakbay Resources.

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