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By ANA Reporter 
Oct 7, 2020
Cape Town – Eskom’s former interim CFO on Wednesday rebutted testimony before the Zondo commission by former group CEO Matshela Koko about the suspension of key executives in 2015.
Nonkululeko Dlamini testified that Koko demanded a copy of his CV before he, along with three other key executives, were suspended.
Koko summoned Dlamini to a meeting at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg and when she said she was in a strategy session, they finally met at Midrand later.
In the brief meeting, he said he wanted his CV because then-Eskom CFO Tsholofelo Molefe could be suspended.
Judge Raymond Zondo, who is leading the investigation into the state capture, chimed in here to suggest that Koko likely asked for Dlamini’s CV because he wanted to see if there was someone suitably qualified to replace Molefe.
If not, it is possible that the suspension would not have been advanced, he ventured.
Koko has denied the discussions and, calling Dlamini a close family friend, said they were both surprised when they appointed her interim CFO.
Dlamini said that this could not have been the case and that he was not surprised because he had informed him of the pending suspension.
A transcript of his phone records showed that Koko tried to call Dlamini at least six times on March 10.
Koko, who at the time was Eskom’s business executive, Molefe, capital group head Dan Marokane, and then-CEO Tshediso Matona were suspended by Eskom’s chairman at the time, Zola Tsotsi, under mysterious circumstances, according with a decision. Taken March 11.
Marokane told the commission this week that the move surprised him.
Like others in the group who were suspended, he said he was informed it was done not because of indications of wrongdoing on his part, but because the board wanted to embark on an investigative investigation and his thinking was that executives should step aside to avoid any interference.
Tsotsi told the commission last month that he had come to believe the suspensions might have been a ploy to replace executives with people more amenable to the needs of the Gupta family, who are at the center of the rent-seeking scandal. .
After his departure, Brian Molefe became CEO of Eskom and Anoj Singh became CFO of the power company.
Of the three suspended executives, Koko was the only one who was reinstated.
Eskom and the Special Investigation Unit earlier this year instituted special legal procedures to recover around R3.8 billion from Molefe, Singh and Koko, the Gupta brothers, former board chairman Ben Ngubane, board members Mark Pamensky and Chwayita Mabude and former Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane.
The claim concerns funds diverted from the company in debt to the Gupta brothers and their associates in a series of shady deals.
African News Agency / ANA
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