Thursday’s damning court ruling against former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe is justifiably seen by many as his well-deserved comeuppance. But it is also evident that myths about Brian Molefe are rapidly becoming fact. That he was always either corrupt or incompetent (not true). That he was always o.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo expressed disappointment several times at the Eskom board members’ lack of diligence in doing their job and so allowing billions to be bled from the already ailing Eskom.
Each board member had their turn to be lambasted by Justice Zondo much like the parliamentarians who came before him in previous days for not asking informed and probing questions of the executive and performing the oversight role they were assigned to do. In particular, Zondo struggled to believe they did not notice they were handing billions of rands to the “proposed owners” of a coal mine rather than to the mine’s actual owners.
LIVE FEED: State capture inquiry - February 11, 2021
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Johannesburg - The Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture will on Thursday continue to hear Eskom-related evidence from former board member Mark Pamensky.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond on Wednesday expressed his disappointment with the Eskom board’ approval of the R1.68 billion prepayment to fund the acquisition of Optimum Coal by a Gupta owned company in 2015.
Two former board members, Professor Pathmanathan Naidoo and Venete Klein, gave evidence at the commission of inquiry about the R1.68bn prepayment.
Naidoo told the commission that the board’s understanding was that Eskom was dealing with the then Glencore-owned Optimum Coal as there was no Gupta-owned Tegeta Resources at the time.
Former Eskom board member Venete Klein has told the state capture commission that she reasonably believed that the payment was for the Optimum Coal Mine under Glencore.