Eskom managers failed to stand up to wrongdoing – Zondo
Eskom’s contracts manager Gert Opperman told the inquiry he couldn't go against orders as 'Koko's management style was threatening'.
Former Eskom general manager Johann Bester, left, and contract manager Gert Opperman at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in Parktown, Johannesburg, 11 March 2019. Picture: Refilwe Modise
Some of the alleged malfeasance at Eskom could have been curbed, had people who knew about the wrongdoing stood up to authority. This was how Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo summed up the effects of corruption that was allowed to fleece billions from Eskom.
Zondo’s remark is seen as the strongest ever made on the power utility at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
This was prompted by Eskom’s contracts manager Gert Opperman’s revelation yesterday that former acting chief executive Matshela Koko in 2015 ordered him to push through a sub-standard stockpile coal supply from Gupta-owned Tegeta-Brakfontein colliery to the Majuba power station.
Done without Opperman, his supervisor Vuyisile Ncube and Majuba operations staff management – privately expressing reservations about what appeared to be among strides made by Koko to appease the Gupta family – the decision financially compromised the utility.
Opperman recalled: “Tegeta CEO Jacques Roux was the first to call me to request that we dispatch the coal stockpile from Brakfontein to the Majuba power station.
“When I told him that this could not be done due to concerns of the coal quality not meeting the contract specifications, Roux was not pleased and hung up the phone.
“Koko then called me, asking me to engage Majuba power station to accept the product from the Tegeta-Brakfontein colliery,” he added. “Koko, who had not called me on any other contract before, wanted the coal to be accepted at all costs.”
Opperman, who described Koko’s call to him as “unusual, given the fact that he was four levels above me”, shared his displeasure with Ncube who told him “to honour the request”.
In terms of Eskom’s coal supply policy – in the event of an unhappiness over product quality – a dispute is declared with the supplier and the service provider is asked to reprocess the coal.
While Opperman made it clear to Majuba management that the order came from Koko and that he objected to the stockpile supply, the coal was ultimately dispatched.
Zondo asked: “Why is it that someone knew something was wrong and did it? So, good people allowed themselves to be party to wrongdoing? Why did both of you go along with this?”
Opperman said: “I would have loved for Ncube to advise me not to do it. Koko’s management style was threatening and people got dismissed.”
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