EDITORIAL: Lights, camera, action
The real losers are Eskom and SA — the utility has long been subject to destructive political interference
Eskom’s interim results presentation on Thursday was a remarkable piece of theatre, at a remarkable time. The results, whose presentation had been postponed from Monday, could hardly have come at a more awkward time for Eskom CE Brian Molefe and its board, coming as they did the morning after the release of the public protector’s State of Capture report. The report sets out the story of how Eskom favoured the Gupta family’s mining company, Tegeta, over rivals in the bid for the Optimum Coal mine and provided Tegeta with more than R1bn of the funding Tegeta needed to buy Optimum from Glencore. It tells of the capture of the Eskom board, almost every member of which is somehow linked to the Gupta or Zuma families or associates. And it provides evidence of Molefe’s own close relationship with the Guptas, with cellphone records showing he made 44 phone calls to Ajay Gupta and was in the vicinity of the Guptas’ home in Saxonwold 19 times. Eskom will stage another media conference on Frid...
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