New Age2.png Eskom's high-voltage retort Eskom CEO Molefe Says the Utility Transacted Legally Dennis Cruywagen, The New Age, Johannesburg, 1 September 2016 Eskoms's top brass came out guns blazing in response to allegations that the power utility had given Tegeta Mining and Resources preferential treatment. At a meeting with the Parliament's Public Enterprises portfolio committee yesterday, Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh said that the need to meet the winter demand for electricity to avoid load-shedding saw Eskom approach Tegeta to supply it with coal. Singh said that the prepayment made to Tegeta was a traditional and common practice with a long history stretching for more than 40 years. The four big mining houses were each beneficiaries of the practice. Singh gave the example of Rand Mines, which was given a loan, which was recoverable over 20 years. The big four mining companies, including Anglo and BHB, currently had prepayments of R38bn. In October 2015, Exxaro requested R1.8bn to sink a shaft for Eskom. "Let's first categorically state that we were not approached by Tegeta to make this payment. They didn't come to us and say 'please pay us this amount'," Singh said. There was a security question, he said, which related to overcoming the winter challenge. Possible suppliers were identified and Tegeta was one of them. It had to supply two million tons of coal at the time. "Due to operational issues at the mine, there was a request for prepayment that was made. In order to grant prepayment we then requested a 3% discount from Tegeta on the price of the coal, which had already been benchmarked by the operations guys in terms of being competitive," Singh said. In order to ensure that it was not exposed to risks, the utility requested and received adequate security from Tegeta. "The duration of this prepayment could not be extended beyond winter. We insisted that the amount be repaid within a period of six months and we are also pleased to say that the prepayment was actually honoured and repaid by August 12 of this year." Eskom CEO Brian Molefe said some employees complained that the coal was of substandard quality. "The issue of sub-standard coal has absolutely no basis. That coal was tested by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) which confirmed there was nothing wrong with it," Molefe said. Molefe said it seemed some people did not want the utility to do business with the Gupta family. He said he was against the kangaroo court approach, and believed in applying Public Finance Management Act practices as a guide on steps that needed to be followed "if such a move was contemplated". "Nobody is calling them to come and give a precautionary statement. As far as we know they have not been found guilty of anything. I get labelled as being a Gupta person because I don't want to break the laws of the country by blacklisting them. Until we can get a reason to blacklist them, if they bid for a transaction or do work with us, we have to consider it. That is prescribed by the Constitution. Perhaps I'm captured but I'm captured by the Constitution not by the Guptas," he said. Board chairperson Ben Ngubane said there had been no attempt "to be devious and hide things" from the national Treasury. He said Eskom had given the Treasury what it wanted. However, the Treasury came back and wanted more information, which had to be signed off by the board and the next board meeting was scheduled for next month. "There is no attempt at all to be devious and hide things. "I have full confidence in the CEO and executive at Eskom. They work by the book. It's a very watertight system. I'd be surprised if today they can rig that," Ngubane said. He dismissed reports that Eskom had been captured. "This campaign to kill trust in Eskom to say we are a board that's captured is nonsense." [email protected] From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/01092016/epaperpdf/1.pdf __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14051 (20160901) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. 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