Eskom and Dentons: decoding its ombudsman spin
The power utility tries desperately to put a positive spin on the ombudsman’s findings
Eskom has had an awful week, so you can see why it would seize on any small glimmer of sunshine and hype it out of all proportion. Late on Tuesday, press ombudsman Johan Retief issued a ruling in which it dismissed 21 of Eskom’s specific complaints, and found against the Financial Mail on three issues relating to our Cover Story on the explosive Dentons report. In March, the Financial Mail published a Cover Story about the report that “Eskom does not want you to see”, which contained explosive new information about how the state-owned power utility’s shoddy coal purchasing practices and governance breaches meant taxpayers ended up paying far more than they should. Worse, it revealed how Eskom had sought to bury the Dentons probe. But following the ombudsman ruling on Tuesday, Eskom’s acting CEO Matshela Koko — who is embroiled in a nepotism scandal involving R1bn of contracts that Eskom awarded to a company in which his stepdaughter has a stake — crowed that “the press ombudsman rul...
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