Eskom’s head of legal and compliance, Suzanne Daniels, tried to save the power utility millions in legal fees and private-security costs paid for Gupta-linked board member Mark Pamensky but was overruled by Ben Ngubane’s board. This emerged from a memo seen by Business Day that Daniels sent to the board in September. Daniels attached e-mails that Pamensky sent to Ngubane in 2016, when he was Eskom chairman. The documents provided further evidence that Pamensky received special treatment from Ngubane’s board, while he served as a director of Gupta companies Oakbay Resources & Energy and Shiva Uranium and headed Eskom’s investment and finance committee.At the time, Pamensky also worked for Gupta-linked financial advisory firm Trillian, which raked in R600m in fees for six months’ worth of work for Eskom without a contract. Daniels’s memo sent to the board on September 17 advised Eskom to recover legal fees it paid for Pamensky related  to former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s stat...

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