‘This is just a nuisance’ — Matshela Koko slams Zondo’s latest report

Former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko has hit back at chief justice Raymond Zondo after he recommended Koko be investigated and possibly prosecuted for a raft of Gupta-linked deals at Eskom.

Zondo made the recommendation in part four of his report on the inquiry into state capture which was handed to the presidency on Friday.

“To the extent that there were concerns that Mr Koko may have engaged in acts of corruption which harmed Eskom, the evidence which has been unearthed by the commission has revealed that cabinet’s concerns about Mr Koko were fully justified.

“In my view, Mr Koko, consistent with his decision to become a Gupta agent, was feeding Mr Salim Essa with information to enable the Guptas to position themselves advantageously in relation to Eskom’s affairs in general and the takeover of Glencore’s coal interests in particular,” said the report.

Taking to social media, Koko criticised Zondo for not reading his affidavit in response to the allegations at Eskom.

He said Zondo has set up the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to fail.

“After reading a significant part of the state capture commission report part IV, I have come to the conclusion that CJ [chief justice] Zondo has set up the NPA to fail. For example, see the attached highlights from the report and my affidavit. Justice Zondo has really gone crazy,” said Koko.

“I was directed by CJ Zondo to submit an affidavit instead of being led by my counsel because he had ran out of time. To my surprise, Judge Zondo says he did not read my affidavit but only went through the themes. I repeat, Judge Zondo has set up the NPA to fail.”

Koko denied he and other executives were Gupta agents who collapsed Eskom to benefit the controversial family.

“Chief justice Raymond Zondo has made life extremely difficult for the NPA. It is much easier to connect the dots. Unlike Zondo, the NPA will need to do much more than to connect the dots. The evidence speaks for itself and frankly, this is just a nuisance,” he said.

“If the Guptas indeed captured and controlled Eskom as it is suggested by CJ Zondo then the country has a reason to thank them. After all, they stopped load-shedding, sustained planned maintenance and they did not burn diesel to keep the lights on,” Koko added.

Speaking on eNCA, the former power utility boss said he may take the state capture report on judicial review.

“Chief justice Raymond Zondo was employed to do a job, and he has found prima facie evidence that I must face charges, and he has referred the matter to the NPA, and the NPA will fail.

“Because of the three topics which he suggests I should be prosecuted and possibly charged with, the NPA has been seized with them over the last few years, and nothing has come of it, and I don’t see anything coming out of it going forward,” he said.

Koko said he would be exploring two options: taking the report on judicial review or “letting the NPA bring it on”.

“The state capture, in the Eskom case, was a waste of time,” said Koko.

“The biggest problem with Eskom is load-shedding, the second biggest problem is the debt of R400bn and the third biggest problem is the R178bn in contracts that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and Bowman Gilfillan [now called Bowmans] have found to be tainted, and the state capture report does not address any of this and the reason it doesn’t address any of those is because it was targeting former president Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family,” he said.