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By Bongani Hans 
5h ago
Durban – The Competition Commission has been criticized for approving a deal that would result in two dominant players in the resource market supplying Eskom with coal.
The South African Energy Forum (SAEF) launched harsh criticism of the transaction after the commission approved the acquisition by Seriti Resources Holdings of the 91.835% shares of SA Energy Coal (SAEC) of South32, which would make it the the country’s largest coal supplier to Eskom.
The forum represents 30 small coal mining companies that SAEF says could suffer business losses as a result of the merger. They also claim that the merger would result in 72% of Eskom’s coal supply coming solely from the two companies.
Additionally, Seriti CEO Mike Teke, who is at the center of the merger, is believed to have donated R600000 to the CR17 election campaign which has since been embroiled in allegations of money laundering and vote buying in Nasrec.
Since then, other individuals who have also donated to the campaign fund have been elevated to board members in various state entities.
When approached to comment on funding CR17, ANC spokesman Pule Mabe said he knew nothing about Teke’s donation of money for the campaign.
However, Seriti spokesperson Charmane Russell said that Teke had, on several occasions, confirmed his personal donation to the Ramaphosa campaign.
“This was not related to Masimong Holdings or Seriti in any way. Any suggestion of a connection between the transaction and the donation is both implausible and false, ”Russell said.
He said the transaction would soon be submitted to the Competition Court for consideration.
Independent Media has seen a merger agreement document which, among other things, states that Seriti paid SAEF 100 million rand in advance at a total cost of 1.5 trillion rand per year.
SAEF, in turn, has since accused the commission of failing to consider the impact of the merger on the country’s economy.
He also claimed that the transaction would be detrimental to the smaller players in the sector and would result in electricity consumers paying exorbitant prices in four additional cost contracts through the electricity tariff.
Ignoring the risk of concentration that makes Seriti the largest supplier of coal from the only supplier of excessively costly electricity plus coal does not serve the social or economic well-being of South Africans. The commission is creating the largest coal supplier for Eskom, regardless of its role in creating SMEs, ”the SAEF statement read. In a statement issued on September 6, the commission announced that it had recommended that the Competition Court should approve the measure for Thabong Coal, which is “wholly owned” by Seriti, to acquire SAEC from South32 “with conditions”.
“The commission concluded that after the merger, Seriti would be Eskom’s largest coal supplier with a market share of more than 30%,” the commission’s statement read.
However, SAEF made no effort to disapprove of the merger.
He said he had filed a series of objections to the commission in November last year, July and last month, but had fallen on deaf ears.
“This transaction has been treated as if it were in the toilet paper sector and not as a matter of national energy security. In reality, the commission is creating a majority supplier for Eskom with four additional cost contracts when junior miners have zero, which is the opposite of the commission’s purpose. It is worrying that the commission is creating a dominant player, which then raises the question of whether the commission is losing its sense of purpose in the market, ”SAEF said.
In the agreement document, South32 CEO Graham Kerr said that the sale of its stake in the South Africa Energy Coal would allow the company to continue to operate safely and sustainably in the future for the benefit of its employees, customers and local communities, which was consistent with South Africa’s transformation agenda.
The commission’s spokesman, Siyabulela Makunga, denied that it had ignored SAEF’s complaints, saying instead that it had considered and responded to all complaints raised.
“However, based on the totality of the evidence and data available, the commission has taken a different view and approach than SAEF. Therefore, there is a difference of views between the SAEF and the commission, rather than the incorrect and unfortunate characterization that the commission has ignored the complaints raised, ”Makunga said.
He said that before approving the merger, the commission conducted an investigation for more than seven months, which included the participation of more than 20 different stakeholders, such as coal customers, competitors, unions, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, the Department of Mineral Resources. as well as the Department of Public Companies and SAEF.
“There were divergent views that emerged on the transactions, but all the submissions from all of these various stakeholders were taken into account by the commission, which ultimately made its own independent views on all those submissions,” he said.
‘Funders’ of the CR17 campaign
Nicky Oppenheimer: R10 million.
Raymond Ackerman: 1 million rand.
Andre Crawford-Brunt: R2 million
Maria Ramos: R1 million.
Mark Lamberti: 1 million rand
Stavros Nichalaou: Millions
Johnny Copelyn: R2 million.
Anonymous donor: 120 million rand
Absa Nation Building: R10.5 million
Nation Building: R8.5 m
H Trust: R10 million
Phembani Group: R2m
Grovepoint Limited: R1.8m
Aspen Pharmacare: R150,000
Sifiso Dabengwa, Eskom Board Member: 1.2 million rand
Former Eskom President Bobby Godsell: R250,000
Mike Tese, CEO of Seriri Resources: R600,000
Collin Coleman, Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer for Southern Africa: R70,000
Former Prime Minister of the North Cape, Mannie Dipico: R50,000
Political Bureau
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