https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / South African News RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

Eskom's Molefe implicated in 'state capture' report

Eskom CEO Brian Molefe
Photo by Duane Daws
Eskom CEO Brian Molefe

2nd November 2016

By: News24Wire

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela's long-awaited state capture report includes damning details on the relationship between Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and the controversial Gupta family.

Molefe and Ajay Gupta, the eldest of three Gupta brothers, made 58 telephone calls to one another between August 2015 and March 2016, according to the report, which was released on Wednesday.

Advertisement

Titled "State of Capture", the document details phone calls between Molefe and Ronica Ragavan, a long-time Gupta associate and recently appointed acting CEO of Oakbay Investments, the family's main holding company.

According to cellphone tracking records obtained by the protector's investigators, Molefe was at or near the Guptas' Saxonwold, Johannesburg, compound 19 times between August 5 and November 17, 2015.

Advertisement

The report details contact between Molefe and Nazeem Howa, Oakbay's former CEO, and Rajesh "Tony" Gupta, the youngest of the three Gupta siblings.

The time frame of the interactions between Molefe, the Guptas, and their associates is important as it coincides with the acquisition of the Optimum coal mine by the Gupta-owned Tegeta Exploration and Resources.

Part of the controversy about the deal revolves around a pre-payment of more than R600-million that Eskom had approved for coal it would get from Tegeta. This money ostensibly helped the Guptas finance the Optimum deal.

Madonsela's report highlights "a distinct line of communication between Molefe of Eskom, the Gupta family and directors of their companies in the form of Ms Ragavan and Howa. These links cannot be ignored as Molefe did not declare his relationship with the Guptas."

The report highlights the fact that Ragavan called Molefe on April 11 this year, the same day when Eskom’s prepayment was granted to Tegeta.

Molefe told News24 he first wanted to see the report himself before commenting.

“Right now I am not comfortable saying anything about this,” he said.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE      FEEDBACK

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here


About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za