Lynne Brown drawn into Guptas’ Optimum coal saga
Minister is alleged to have misled Parliament when asked whether Eskom had signed any contracts with Trillian Capital Partners, owned by Gupta associate Salim Essa
Public enterprises minister Lynne Brown has been drawn into the saga around how the influential Gupta family acquired a mine that gained lucrative contracts from power utility Eskom. The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism reported on Thursday that Brown had misled Parliament when she was asked whether Eskom had signed any contracts with Trillian Capital Partners‚ a financial services company owned by Gupta associate Salim Essa. It has been suggested that Trillian helped fund the Guptas’ purchase of Glencore-owned coal mine Optimum‚ which was allegedly squeezed out of business by Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and chairman Ben Ngubane‚ so that the Guptas’ Tegeta mining company could buy it. Trillian has no formal stake in Tegeta‚ but another Essa-owned company‚ Elgasolve‚ became a 21.5% shareholder in Tegeta‚ amaBhungane said. It reported that Brown was asked in December last year in Parliament whether Trillian had concluded any contracts with Eskom. Brown had replied: "None"‚ a...
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