The South African power utility, Eskom, follows the rule of law when
it awards tenders to whoever applies for a tender to supply coal,
not that they are being captured by the Gupta family. That’s according
to Eskom boss Brian Molefe who was speaking on Wednesday in Parliament.
Molefe was answering to Parliament’s public enterprise committee
whether the state utility has been ‘captured’ by a company owned by the
Gupta family.
It was reported recently that the Gupta owned company is only responsible for 5% of all coal supplied to Eskom and the rest is supplied by the other companies that are not owned by the family. Less than 1% of the family’s revenue comes from government tenders.
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Eskom has recently come under attack over its transaction with Tageta Coal which recently bought the Optimum Glencore mine which supplies coal to the Arnot and Hendrina power stations.
“Not to do business with Tegeta would require us to blacklist the company,” said Molefe.
“We would have to inform them that we can’t do business with them and provide reasons,” he told Parliament on late Wednesday.
“Until we can give reasons to blacklist them, if they bid for a transaction and apply for a tender, we have to consider”.
He said he didn’t want to break the law by blacklisting the company owned by the family without reasons.
“By saying so, if that makes me a captured person, I’m captured by the Constitution,” Molefe said.
(edited by MM)
