State capture inquiry begins

[TysonRoux]

When are these ANC cnuts going to be arrested?

Gigaba Told Parly: I Gave The Guptas Citizenship For Their Contribution To Our Economy

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba awarded the Gupta family South African citizenship last year because of their contribution to the South African economy.

In a written response to a parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance's Haniff Hoosen last year, Gigaba, who was then home affairs minister, said the Citizenship Act stipulates that he might, under exceptional circumstances, grant a certificate of naturalisation as a South African citizen to an applicant who does not comply with the requirements.

"The fact that Mr Gupta and family contribute to the economy of South Africa provided substantive grounds for consideration of their application for naturalisation under exceptional circumstances," Gigaba.

The Guptas also apparently also submitted supporting documents reflecting their employment of approximately 7,000 permanent employees at Oakbay.

Gigaba was asked what the full details of the exceptional circumstances under which he granted the Gupta family citizenship were.

Gigaba said subsequent to the refusal of an application for naturalisation, an applicant may approach the minister and submit a motivation containing material information for consideration as to the existence of exceptional circumstances justifying the granting of citizenship by means of naturalisation.

"Mr Gupta and family submitted their motivation which presented exceptional circumstances for the consideration of the applications," Gigaba wrote.

 

[Gordon_R]

Lots of various Eskom reports and evidence, as well as some subpoenas, to be placed before the Zondo Inquiry: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/art...ncs-eskom-woes-reloaded-before-justice-zondo/

The Guptas, McKinsey & Co, Regiments Capital and Trillian Capital Partners, along with their former Eskom enablers, are back in the spotlight as the State Capture commission shifts attention to their deals with the power utility — and this time, with the threat of subpoenas and summons to extract versions from implicated parties.

 

[schumi]

#StateCaptureInquiry: Eskom board chairman Jabu Mabuza set to testify

Johannesburg - Eskom board chair Jabu Mabuza will take the stand at the state capture inquiry on Friday morning.
Mabuza is the first witness to take the stand in the Eskom phase of the commission's investigation.
The commission's legal team led by Advocate Vincent Maleka said Eskom would be the first state-owned enterprise to be investigated because of its important role and its complexity as well as its large revenue.
Maleka set out the timetable that will be followed regarding the Eskom phase of the investigation which is expected to take several weeks.
Mabuza is expected to wrap-up his testimony on Monday, February 25. Maleka says from Mabuza, the commission expects to get a sense of what the new board which was appointed last year is doing to clean up Eskom. Maleka said of interest was what the new leadership found when it first started.

More at: https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics...-chairman-jabu-mabuza-set-to-testify-19439950

 

[TheChamp]

I am intrigued, he was at Telkom while things were happening at Eskom, where is Ben Ngubane and all the others who chaired the Eskom board?

 

[R13...]

I am intrigued, he was at Telkom while things were happening at Eskom, where is Ben Ngubane and all the others who chaired the Eskom board?

The likes of Ben Ngubane and implicated will not volunteer anything to the commission. The duckers will have to be dragged there kicking and screaming. The only partaker of state capture to testify is Manyi. And he was a joke.

It's time the subpoenas start going out now. Or maybe there's a plan to let the volunteers complete their testimonies before we start seeing the dragging. A lot of them will probably start by challenging the processes in courts.

 

[TysonRoux]

Pathetic that none of the ANC facilitators are brought to book.

ESKOM FILES CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST GUPTA-LINKED TEGETA

 

[schumi]

Eskom was the main theatre of #StateCapture, says Mabuza

Johannesburg - Eskom board chairman Jabu Mabuza says 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 said various charges had been laid against Eskom officials that were found to have led to wasteful and criminal activity at the power utility.

He took the stand at the Zondo commission on Friday. He is the first witness regarding the Eskom phase of the investigation.

Mabuza was quizzed on why his board, which was appointed in January 2018, had not dealt with a National Treasury report which raised issues with Eskom’s contract with Gupta linked Tegeta. Treasury had found that the Tegeta deal and had found wasteful expenditure. The company was contracted to supply coal to Eskom's power stations.

He said the new board had not dealt with a National Treasury report regarding the Tegeta deal which had recommendations. He said some of the actions that have been taken, including disciplinary hearings into charged executives, which were recommended by Treasury have been conducted.

More at: https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/eskom-was-the-main-theatre-of-statecapture-says-mabuza-19445581

 

[schumi]

Mabuza tells inquiry Eskom board should have foreseen load shedding

Johannesburg - Eskom board chair Jabu Mabuza believes the Eskom board should have foreseen the crisis of load shedding which has become a prominent feature in South Africans’ lives last year.

Mabuza was testifying at the Zondo commission on Friday and was asked about the load shedding issue and what the board could have done to deal with it.

He said that when the new Eskom board was appointed in January 2018 there were various issues that needed to be dealt with such as the company’s financial woes and corruption, but load shedding was not one of the issues.

He said as such the board should have been able to foresee the disaster of unstable operational plants issues.

“What we are having is not the problem that we had at the time and maybe we should have foreseen it. Now knowing what know we need to get people to augment or replace the current skills set to address issues of a technical nature.

More at: https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics...d-should-have-foreseen-load-shedding-19450250

 

[schumi]

#StateCaptureInquiry: Mabuza says Eskom won't pay back R25bn Huarong loan

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza told the Zondo inquiry on Friday that Eskom would not be paying back the multi-million rand loan it received from a Chinese asset management company Huarong Energy Africa.
In 2017, Eskom received a U.S.$2 billion (R25 billion) loan from China's Huarong Energy Africa to build or refurbish power stations.
The then interim group chief executive officer (GCEO), Shaun Maritz, was then implicated in a kickback scandal in which he was alleged to have signed off a questionable R400 million payment from Eskom to an unknown Hong Kong bank account.
Mabuza said Maritz was suspended for going against all legal advice and signing the documentation that would have committed the power utility to a pre-payment of R340 million to Huarong.
"Eskom has taken a view that they we not going to pay R25 billion to Huarong Energy. I recently received a call to have coffee with chairman of Huarong, but I declined," he said.
Beijing-based media group Caixin Globa reported on Friday that Huarong is warning of a slump in 2018 net profits as it is expected to record a 90 to 95 percent year-on-year decrease in net profit due to the depreciating value of its assets and an increase in payments for loans, among others.

More at: https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics...kom-wont-pay-back-r25bn-huarong-loan-19450472

 

[schumi]

#StateCaptureInquiry: Bosasa-linked security firm's contract terminated

JOHANNESBURG - Bosasa's security firm, GTS, on Friday was fired from providing security services to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
This comes after City Press newspaper last year published an article in which it stated that GTS had been appointed or contracted by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to provide security services to the commission, which is chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
The newspaper questioned how a subsidiary of Bosasa - which had allegedly bribed government officials to secure tenders - was appointed or contracted to provide services to the Commission in light of the corruption allegations.
There were also allegations that procurement procedures were not followed in granting the contract.

More at: https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics...d-security-firms-contract-terminated-19450967

 

[ponder]

Pathetic that none of the ANC facilitators are brought to book.

ESKOM FILES CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST GUPTA-LINKED TEGETA

The cadres won't be touched, nothing new.

 

[Vrotappel]

I wonder who is going to pick up all these contracts for the next cycle of looting?

 

[Gordon_R]

Duh, has this guy been asleep for the last decade: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...mpanies-should-have-been-blacklisted-20190225

The government could have prevented money being lost to corruption by blacklisting companies implicated in wrongdoing or putting them on a "restricted" list, said Justice Minister Michael Masutha on Monday.

"Perhaps in hindsight we should have instituted blacklisting proceedings," said Masutha at a media briefing that featured government's response to allegations of corruption by prisons and courts service provider Bosasa, now African Global, and some government officials.

This followed astounding allegations made at the Zondo commission on state capture by former Bosasa boss Angelo Agrizzi.

"But blacklisting was also not one of the recommendations of the [Special Investigating Unit] report," he said, referring to a probe by the SIU which started as far back as 2009.

"From a situation where you have not actually blacklisted a company, it becomes difficult to [exclude] it from bidding," he said.

"So I agree, blacklisting would have put a stop to continued procurement to a company (sic)," he said.

 

[TysonRoux]

Duh, has this guy been asleep for the last decade: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...mpanies-should-have-been-blacklisted-20190225

"From a situation where you have not actually blacklisted a company, it becomes difficult to [exclude] it from bidding," he said.

Yeah right, the ANC cadres going to blacklist a company that's giving them hefty backhanders.

 

[R13...]

I see Jabu Mabuza has an undeclared conflict of interest. He has a stake in a holding company for a company who do boiler maintenance at Eskom. Just won't stop.

 

[Gordon_R]

I see Jabu Mabuza has an undeclared conflict of interest. He has a stake in a holding company for a company who do boiler maintenance at Eskom. Just won't stop.

EFF propaganda: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...abuzas-conflict-of-interest-at-eskom-20190224

The Economic Freedom Fighters said it wants new Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza to step down following disclosures he made at the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture on Friday.

The EFF on Saturday said Mabuza disclosed a "serious conflict of interest" during his testimony that should have disqualified him from his position at the power utility.

Mabuza, who is currently chairing the new Eskom board tasked with ridding the state-owned entity of impropriety, told the commission on Friday that he had bought 6% of shares in Sphere Investment worth R26m.

He said that upon accepting the position of board chairperson in January 2018 he declared all his interests and resigned from future investment decisions at Sphere. The shares had also been put in a blind trust.

 

[schumi]

Ngubane, Brown suspended Eskom ads in some newspapers - Mabuza

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom board chair Jabu Mabuza says emails between former chair Ben Ngubane and former Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown confirm that Ngubane tried to stop the power utility's advertising in newspapers that published damning reports about the parastatal.
Mabuza concluded his testimony at the state capture commission on Monday afternoon.
Earlier on Monday, he told the Zondo Inquiry that former executive Matshela Koko sent confidential documents to Gupta associate Salim Essa to give him the inside track on business opportunities at the state-owned company.

More at: https://ewn.co.za/2019/02/25/ben-ng...nded-eskom-ads-in-some-newspapers-jabu-mabuza

 

[schumi]

Mabuza: 'Koko gave McKinsey, Trillian advantages on Eskom contracts'

JOHANNESBURG - Eskom board chair Jabu Mabuza has described how the power utility's former acting chief executive Matshela Koko paved the way for McKinsey and Trillian to secure multi-million rand contracts with the company.
Mabuza is expected to conclude his testimony at the state capture commission on Monday.
He says Koko sent confidential documents to a Gupta associate to inform him of business opportunities at Eskom.
Koko resigned last year after he was charged with lying to Parliament about payments to McKinsey and Trillian, sharing sensitive and classified documents, as well as accepting free flights to Dubai from the controversial family.

More at: https://ewn.co.za/2019/02/25/mabuza-koko-gave-mckinsey-trillian-advantages-on-eskom-contracts

 

[schumi]

Eskom’s primary energy GM Daniel Mashigo to testify at Zondo inquiry

Mashigo’s testimony will follow Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza, who concluded testifying on Monday afternoon.
The Zondo Inquiry will on Tuesday continue hearing evidence of corruption at Eskom as Daniel Mashigo, acting senior general manager for primary energy division, is set to testify.
Mashigo will be the second witness from the power utility, and is expected to testify about contracts at two coal mines in Brakfontein and Koornfontein owned by the Gupta family.
Mashigo’s testimony will follow Eskom board chairperson Jabu Mabuza, who concluded testifying on Monday afternoon.
In concluding his testimony, Mabuza asked the Commission of Inquiry to invite former Eskom executives to testify about their roles in capturing the power utility, including Brian Molefe, Ben Ngubane, Suzanne Daniels, Anoj Singh, Zethembe Khoza, Ayanda Ntetha, Matshela Koko, and consultants Eric Wood and Salim Essa.

More at: https://citizen.co.za/news/south-af...m-daniel-mashigo-to-testify-at-zondo-inquiry/

 

[Gordon_R]

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/...ta-coal-supply-deal-in-just-48-hours-20190226

There was considerable pressure on Eskom to conclude a coal deal with Gupta-linked Tegeta in less than 48 hours in 2015, the state capture commission of inquiry has heard.

This emerged from one of the commission's evidence leaders, Kate Hofmeyr, on Tuesday.

Hofmeyr was addressing commission chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo before she presented the evidence of Eskom's now deceased executive, Mark Van Der Riet, and acting managing director, Daniel Mashigo.

She submitted that at the time of the agreement relating to the R4.3bn deal, Tegeta was not in a good financial position to enable it to provide coal to Eskom.

Hofmeyr said the evidence team had an understanding that Van der Riet's affidavit and Mashigo's testimony would shed light on some of the irregularities in the procurement of coal from Tegeta's Brakfontein coal mine.

"Van Der Riet's testimony is important as it looks at the significance of the quality of coal that is supplied to Eskom and its relation to the load shedding incidents the power utility has been experiencing," Hofmeyr submitted.

The commission is also expected to hear evidence relating to how Tegeta dictated the terms it wanted Eskom to adhere to when responding to its offers.