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Former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko said his firing, which was spurred in part by then-Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa, resulted in a new wave of cargo shedding in South Africa that cost the economy R266 billion.
This was part of Koko’s testimony in the Judicial Investigation Commission into State Capture Allegations, better known as the Zondo Commission.
Koko told the commission that Eskom performed extremely well when he was a generation manager under former CEO Brian Molefe.
During this period, referred to as the Molefe-Koko era, Eskom produced its best performance for two decades with all KPIs improving.
There was no load reduction in 2016 and 2017 and it reduced diesel spending in one year from R12.5 billion to R200 million.
“Burning diesel during these times to keep the lights on is utter incompetence,” Koko told the Zondo commission.
He even mocked Eskom’s current leadership, noting that the power producer is currently spending R7.5 billion a year on diesel.
Koko said her focus at Eskom was meeting customers’ demand for electricity without burning diesel.
“I was brutal when it was necessary to ensure the cost of producing the required energy [coal, diesel, and IPP] it stayed low, “he said.
According to Koko, the costs of coal at Eskom have risen rapidly over the past 15 years, with one exception: during the Molefe-Koko years.
Some experts argued that Koko achieved her impressive performance by not performing the necessary maintenance, but Koko dismissed this claim.
It provided evidence that more maintenance was done at Eskom during Molefe-Koko’s leadership than ever before.
“When history is written, it will absolve us. Molefe and Koko showed the best performance at Eskom since 2001, ”he said.
Koko’s firing
Koko recalled the day, January 21, 2018, when he received a call from a former colleague and later deputy general director of Public Companies informing him that he would be fired.
Shortly after this call, Ramaphosa issued a statement that a new Eskom board had been appointed and that Koko was removed with immediate effect.
Koko told the commission that her dismissal was curious and illegal.
“We ended up in the labor court, which found the vice president’s decision illegal,” he said.
Koko linked Ramaphosa’s decision to fire him to the business deals between Optimum Mine and Eskom.
Ramaphosa was the former president of Optimum Mine, a company that owed Eskom R1.4 billion in fines.
Koko said she was trying to get these fees back from Optimum, which was likely the motivation behind Ramaphosa’s decision.
He said that before this “very famous call”, Eskom was fine and there was no head loss. A short time later, however, the head loss returned.
“The consequences of the decision to fire me caused a devastating meltdown in 2018, 2019 and 2020,” Koko said.
He highlighted that the CSIR estimated that the cost of reducing burdens for the economy during the last three years was R266 billion.
“That is the cost of the call I received in January 2018,” Koko said.
Testimony of Matshela Koko
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