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Nick Linnell, a former Eskom consultant. (Screenshot: Youtube / SABC)
A consultant who served as a trusted assistant to Dudu Myeni says the former chairman of the SAA board did what former president Jacob Zuma did in relation to the national airline and Eskom.
Attorney-turned-consultant Nick Linnell has disagreed with the description that he was Mr. Fix It from SAA President Dudu Myeni, who was behind her putting out fires.
Linnell testified in the state’s arrest investigation on Monday, October 5. Former Eskom board chairman Zola Tsotsi was one of the witnesses who named Linnell in her testimony.
One of the sources for Mr Fix It’s nickname is forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, whose statements the leader of the evidence, defense attorney Pule Seleka SC, read Linnell. “The narrative itself is probably not reasonable,” Linnell replied.
While he rejected the Mr Fix It label, Linnell defended his expensive consulting work that involved fixing problems, including the many obstacles Myeni faced in breaking through.
Thanks to his alliance with the upstream Myeni, he got work at taxpayers’ expense and an audience with then-president Jacob Zuma in 2015.
Linnell’s government jobs included consulting jobs for Mhlathuze Water Board, SAA, and Eskom. In February 2020, an anonymous witness implicated Myeni in alleged money laundering at the Mhlathuze Water Board.
“I would go to the houses and hide the money without telling the domestic worker, and then call her [Myeni] and tell him. I would hide the cash in the office with the files. Sometimes the place changed, ”said the witness.
Former SAA seniors who appeared before the president of the investigation, Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, alluded to Myeni’s cunning.
Former board member Yakhe Kwinana claimed that Myeni filed anonymous notices against his enemies at SAA. Kwinana, for her part, is also implicated in accusations of corruption.
Kwinana alleged that Myeni filed reports on a SAA whistleblower website, while working on a laptop in a cafe and wearing a costume.
Where Myeni went to hunt down those who resisted her reign, Linnell followed her by paying a fee. Writing for City press, Susan Comrie reported that Linnell came in “at an average cost to the airline of R167,000 a month” in 2014.
We deliver business improvement initiatives and projects with a combination of experienced consultants, solid methodology, project-based management and knowledge management.
According to Linnell’s company website, The project office, its clients are based in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
“We deliver business improvement initiatives and projects with a combination of experienced consultants, sound methodology, project-based management and knowledge management,” the website states.
Defending “value-added” services in Monday’s investigation, Linnell said, “As long as it solves or fixes problems, if the report is to perform a service, I hope and expect to.”
When Zondo asked Linnell how Myeni came to use his services, Linnell said he was recommended by a colleague, whom he did not name.
Linnell said her consulting work involved hiring attorneys to address client challenges. Zondo, upon learning of this coordinating role, expressed skepticism.
“I struggle a bit with the need for a coordinator with these entities because I don’t understand that there would be services that you could provide and that the attorneys could not provide,” Zondo said.
Linnell responded with a series of buzzwords about his “expertise,” allowing him to “propagate” independent services with “a particular purpose, identity and direction.”
Zondo was unfazed. “Well, I must say it would take a lot of persuasion to accept that there was a need,” he said.
“Mr. President, I think there is a very different role,” Linnell replied. Her work “does provide an added value service” in which she questions and searches for “different paradigms” and, she stressed, not only in state entities (EPE).
The meetings that took place over a weekend in March 2015 were the focus of attention during Linnell’s first appearance before Zondo.
Linnell stated that Myeni had telephoned him and summoned him to Mahlamba Ndlopfu, the presidential residence in Pretoria.
On Friday, March 6, 2015, the two went to the residence, and Linnell said she understood from what Myeni told her that they were going to discuss the difficulties at Eskom with Zuma.
However, the afternoon was spent with them waiting in an anteroom of the official residence. Zuma left for his home province and the meeting was postponed.
That day Linnell flew to Cape Town, only to learn that he was expected at the president’s official residence in Durban two days later, on Sunday, March 8.
Linnell testified about two consecutive meetings at Zuma’s residence in Durban that Sunday. The first, she said, was attended by herself, Myeni, her son Thalente, the then chairman of the Eskom board, Zola Tsotsi, and a man named Jabu, who was “.like, secret service ”and“ had very incisive information about Eskom ”.
Linnell testified that she later determined that this man was Jabu Maswanganyi, and after the meeting they corresponded via email.
Linnell said Maswanganyi provided undated documents from anonymous authors reporting sabotage, mismanagement and political interference at Eskom, pointing fingers at executives.
These were some of the sources Linnell consulted when drafting the terms of reference for an Eskom investigation.
While the terms of reference were scrapped, the investigation served as the basis for suspending four Eskom seniors.
“The president wants an investigation into Eskom,” Linnell insisted, contradicting Myeni’s written submissions to Parliament.
Everything in this country has a political undertone.
During the first meeting on Sunday, March 8, 2015, the five attendees discussed how to execute Zuma’s wishes. Zuma provided instructions on what to do and the group determined how to proceed.
Linnell said the notion of an investigation “would be presented to the president for his assent,” so the proposal had to meet Zuma’s “expectations.”
Myeni, he said, began the meeting with Zuma. “It was not, in a sense, austere. He has a jovial character, “he recalled. “He [Zuma] he knew what the meeting was about. It was pretty clear that we all knew what we were discussing there. The context of the meeting before that and even the sixth … was: the president wants an investigation.
Linnell said Zuma was “bound” to harbor concerns about Eskom, which was a matter of national anxiety.
Zondo commented that while it was right for a president to have concerns about state-owned companies, how they acted on those concerns was important.
“Everything in this country has a political undertone,” Linnell said. She described the personal dynamic during Sunday’s meeting, with an emphasis on Myeni’s proximity to Zuma.
Seleka asked Linnell if it occurred to him to question Myeni’s leadership role at the meeting when she was not at Eskom but at SAA.
Linnell said she viewed Myeni as the “close confidant and political ally” of Zuma, who was the chairwoman of the SAA board because she was close to Zuma.
Regarding her leadership in Sunday’s meeting, she said: “She was there because she was her intermediary and she plays the same role in other domains. I didn’t need to ask the question. ”
Linnell said he was aware that “politically connected” people were involved in Eskom, and that the political dynamics at Sunday’s meeting dragged on into the following week.
As the day progressed, a storm hit Johannesburg, the signal dropped, and Linnell’s testimony was interrupted. She will resume her testimony on Tuesday, October 6.
Dan Marokane and Tsholofelo Molefe, both before Eskom, will also appear. The session is scheduled to begin at 10 am. DM
