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Matona says that, after “moving on,” she received a call from Jacob Zuma’s president’s office.
It was around June July 2015.
He says he went to see the president without knowing the purpose of the meeting.
He says Zuma told him that what happened at Eskom “has nothing to do with you and was not a reflection of you.”
The meeting lasted 20 minutes.
Matona says Zuma told him that he and the government still held him in high regard.
Matona notes that he had been in government since 1994.
“I appreciated where it came from,” says Matona.
The former Eskom CEO says Zuma told him he got caught “in the middle of spaghetti.”
Matona says that Zuma told her that he would like her to return to public service.
He says he did not speak to the president about the reasons for his suspension.
Matona says he did not suspect at the time that Zuma might be involved in his suspension.
“I guess it’s still there,” he says.
Matona says she took it almost as an admission of remorse on Zuma’s part, but can’t say if Zuma was involved.
Meanwhile, Zuma denied ever apologizing to Matona.
“The president does not run state-owned companies. The companies report to the line function departments. All career incidents of officials and executives of these departments are managed by the boards of directors and / or the responsible ministers,” said the presidency in a statement in August 2015.
“Therefore, the president cannot apologize for the suspension or any unpleasant incident in the career of any government official or executive.”
