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By Zintle Mahlati 
13h ago
Johannesburg – The Zondo commission has continued its investigation into events related to the suspension of four Eskom executives in 2015 and whether former Public Business Minister Lynne Brown played a role in the matter.
On Thursday, former Eskom board member Venete Klein took the stand in the investigation.
The commission is investigating Eskom and how a proposal for an investigation into the entity’s affairs was devised by the former chairman of the SAA board, Dudu Myeni, on behalf of former chairman Jacob Zuma.
The Eskom board had decided in March 2015 to support a resolution to designate an investigation into Eskom. It was also decided to suspend four executives.
Among those suspended are former Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona and CFO Tsholofelo Molefe and Matshela Koko, who served as chief commercial and technology officer alongside Dan Marokane.
The board justified the suspensions by stating that the presence of the executives could intimidate staff members into not cooperating with the investigation.
When the suspensions were lifted, three of the executives left and Koko remained with the company.
Each of the executives were paid more than 6 million rand to leave the company, following negotiations with the board.
Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo was grappling with the large amount paid to executives who had expressed a desire to return to the company but eventually left.
Another issue for the commission was who had proposed that the CFO be suspended along with the other executives.
Earlier, the investigation heard from former Eskom board chair Zola Tsotsi who said the meeting between him, Myeni and a consultant, Nicholas Linnell, had resolved that three people would be suspended.
The meeting took place at Zuma’s residence on March 8, 2015, days before the suspension of the executives.
Tsotsi recalled that the name of the fourth executive, Molefe, had been added by Brown, who pushed for the investigation and suspensions.
However, Tsotsi’s version had been questioned by former Eskom board member Ben Ngubane and Klein.
Klein testified that he remembers that Tsotsi motivated the suspensions of the four executives and did not recall the minister saying the chief financial officer should be added.
“The names were motivated by Mr. Tsotsi at the beginning of the meeting. Mr. Tsotsi said that the CFO was involved in a bid rigging,” he recalled.
Klein was also asked when he realized that the idea for an investigation into Eskom had been Zuma’s idea.
He said he learned before the board meeting that it decided to suspend the executives.
The former director was also questioned about negotiations with executives. Zondo asked why the board had paid executives more than 6 million rand each, which seemed like too much when they seemed to have a desire to return to the company.
Klein said he was not present during all negotiations on the amounts of the deal. But he confirmed that the board had decided to allow Koko to return to the company.
On Friday, Zondo will hear a request from the commission’s legal team for a subpoena to be issued against Zuma to force him to appear before the investigation.
Zuma is scheduled to return to the booth from November 16-20.
Political Bureau
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