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State Capture: Ex-Eskom boss Matshela Koko challenges ‘biased’ Zondo report
Koko says the Zondo Commission failed to consider relevant evidence and to interrogate key witnesses.
Former Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko. Picture: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Esa Alexander
Former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko has attacked the scathing findings of the Zondo Commission against him in a flurry of allegations contained in his court papers.
In a 189-page affidavit, Koko claims the commission failed to execute its mandate diligently and ignored evidence that could have exonerated him from wrongdoing in relation to the allegations of state capture.
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The ex-Eskom boss charged that the commission ignored evidence in his affidavits within its terms of reference, saying on doing so the inquiry made findings, remarks and conclusions not rationally connected to evidence.
He requested the Johannesburg High Court to review and set aside the findings, remarks and conclusions of the State Capture reports.
Irregular
According to Koko, the commission failed to consider relevant evidence and to interrogate key witnesses such as Prish Govender, Johann Bester, Kiren Maharaj, Suzanne Daniels, Rishaban Moodley and Clinton Ephron.
“Interrogating these witnesses would have weakened the commission’s narrative against me. The commission failed to conduct the task assigned to it through its terms of reference. I am advised that this is a reviewable irregularity,” he deposed.
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The commission chaired by Judge Raymond Zondo was a scathing indictment of Koko’s tenure at the power utility, concluding that he was an integral part of the Gupta family’s capture of Eskom.
In its final report, the commission recommended that Eskom’s former CEOs Koko and Brian Molefe, including the parastatal’s former chief financial officer, Anoj Singh, be criminally charged.
Bring it on
Koko has insisted that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) would fail to hold him criminally liable for the unlawful R3.7 billion coal supply contract that Eskom awarded to the Guptas’ previously owned company, Tegeta Exploration and Resources, including the pre-payment of R659 million.
He said the approach adopted by the commission lacked rigour, especially where key witnesses testified in support of the version provided by its legal team and investigators.
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The ex-Eskom boss also said the commission failed to undertake a proper inquiry as required of the judicial commission acting reasonably within its terms and mandate.
“My submission is that the commission failed to exercise its investigative powers in a manner required by law,” Koko said.
He said throughout his appearance before the commission was that its legal team and investigators had developed what he called a theory of the case.
Biased
Koko said the commission’s legal team was biased to substantiate their narrative and sought to controvert any alternative narrative.
In October, Koko and eight others appeared in the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga for corruption, money laundering and other charges relating to Eskom.
Koko, along with his wife, Mosima Koko, stepdaughters Koketso Aren and Thato Choma, former SA Local Government Association chief executive Thabo Mokoena and former Eskom executive Frans Sithole, were released on bail.
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