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Ngubane has told the state capture commission that the advance payment was intended to secure the supply of coal and lock in prices for Optimum, which was sinking, so that whoever bought it would commit to that supply and prices.
FILE: A screenshot of former Eskom board chair Dr. Ben Ngubane, who appeared at the state seizure investigation on September 11, 2020. Image: SABC / YouTube
JOHANNESBURG – Former Eskom Board Chairman Ben Ngubane has struggled to explain why Eskom decided to prepay R 1.6 billion to pre-purchase coal from Optimum while the state-owned company had decided to terminate its coal supply contract with the mine and why the board authorized executives to negotiate with Tegeta as proposed owners of Optimum when they did not yet own the mine.
Ngubane has told the state capture commission that the advance payment was intended to secure the supply of coal and lock in prices for Optimum, which was sinking, so that whoever bought it would commit to that supply and prices.
Ngubane previously said that Optimum supplied Eskom with waste coal and exported its best quality overseas, but arrogantly demanded that Eskom triple prices.
But he denies that the “businessman”, an email linked to Salim Essa, has issued instructions on what decisions the board should make.
“Putting OCM into the corporate bailout has created an emergency. Anything can happen if they go into liquidation, we could lose all of our coal, workers could lose their jobs. DMR has commented that the best approach is to pre-buy the coal.”
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