Short-circuited
ESKOM INVESTIGATION: Anatomy of a corporate cover-up
The inside story of how Eskom suddenly quashed the probe it commissioned into why it was performing so badly, despite the fact that the investigation cost taxpayers millions
On a warm morning in March 2015, then Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi told a room full of invited journalists and staffers that the board had the previous evening resolved to suspend its four top executives. Amid the daily electricity shutdowns at the time, Tsotsi added, Eskom would initiate a probe into the state of the utility. The goal: to find out why it was on the brink of operational collapse; suffering load-shedding; financially crippled; and had inordinate delays in the building of new power stations. The probe would be conducted by Dentons, an international law firm with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. But to do so, it apparently needed four top executives — CEO Tshediso Matona, finance director Tsholofelo Molefe, group capital executive Dan Marokane, and chief technology officer Matshela Koko — to be away from the company’s premises.Tsotsi said Eskom would also probe the cost overruns at its power stations under construction and whether there were any irregularities that...
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