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Zola Tsotsi. Photo: Lucky Nxumalo
Zola Tsotsi. Photo: Lucky Nxumalo
- Before the State Capture Commission on Friday, former Eskom board chair Zola Tsotsi admitted that he did not ignore a letter sent to him by a Gupta associate as he said earlier.
- The letter, which was from Salim Essa, contained instructions on how the board’s subcommittees should be constituted.
- Essa, a businessman linked to the Gupta family, has featured prominently in the evidence heard by the investigation.
Former Eskom board chairman Zola Tsotsi, who had testified in his affidavit before appearing before the State Capture Commission that he “quietly ignored” a letter from a Gupta associate on how the subcommittees of The board was forced on Friday to admit that it did not in fact ignore the instruction.
In his testimony before the commission on Friday, Tsotsi, who was the chairman of the Eskom board from 2011 to 2015, admitted that he did not ignore Salim Essa’s list containing the names of the directors who should form the board committee.
On December 16, 2014, Essa sent Tsotsi an email assigning committee responsibilities to members of Eskom’s new non-executive directors, in what was an obvious anomaly from an outsider.
Tsotsi had told the investigation led by Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo that he had forwarded that email to Lynne Brown, then Minister of Public Enterprises, in her capacity as a government representative in the state power company.
He also testified that he then sent a follow-up email to Brown with his own list of subcommittee members in January 2015.
The evidence is in sharp contrast
However, the evidence stands in stark contrast to what he said in the affidavit he previously submitted to the commission, which is investigating allegations of corruption in state institutions. In his affidavit, he had said that he “quietly ignored” Essa’s presentation and only sent his own presentation to Brown.
The evidence leader, attorney Pule Seleka, told Tsotsi if he was now trying to correct what he had previously stated in his affidavit, that he had ignored Salim Essa’s presentation to him.
Tsotsi initially claimed that, by stating that he ignored Essa’s submission, he only meant that “it was not the final document that would represent the actual formulation [of the board]”, adding that he did not ignore it” in the sense of not having transmitted it. “
But Zondo was not satisfied with Tsotsi’s explanation, arguing that there cannot be two ways to solve the problem, and that he either ignored it or not, and that his action could not have a double meaning.
“There are not two meanings about ignoring something. There is only one meaning, ignoring something is nothing,” he said, prompting Tsotsi to accept Zondo’s interpretation.
“Here, you did nothing about the composition of Mr. Essa, but you did exactly what he had asked you to do, you presented it to the minister as if it were yours.”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Tsotsi replied, also admitting to Zondo’s statement that it is incorrect to say that he ignored Essa’s communication.
The final list that was later sealed by Brown resembled Essa’s initial plan, including spelling errors, a coincidence Tsotsi said the commission took by surprise.
Essa, a businessman linked to the Gupta family, has featured prominently in the evidence heard by the investigation, including his alleged role in awarding lucrative contracts by Eskom and Transnet to companies associated with the controversial family.
Former Eskom company secretary Suzanne Daniels previously testified that Essa had introduced herself as Brown’s advisor when she first met him in 2015, but that claim has not been verified.
Essa has yet to present evidence to the commission.
