Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe at the State Capture Commission on 15 January 2021. Picture: Neil McCartney
“The public protector betrayed me.”
Those are the words of former Transnet chief executive officer Brian Molefe before the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture.
Molefe was giving testimony, on Monday, before the commission on Transnet-related matters.
Some of the issues he was questioned about involved his relationships with the infamous Gupta brothers and their dealings.
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Evidence leader for the commission, Anton Myburgh, questioned him based on an article of the then Gupta-owned newspaper The New Age on December 2010.
The paper published a story on “good authority” that Molefe was going to be the new CEO of Transnet, which later happened as had been reported.
Myburgh also made touched when Gupta-linked businessman Salim Essa told another Eskom employee that Molefe was due to become the new CEO of Eskom, and indeed he was appointed in April 2015.
Myburgh and Zondo questioned Molefe as to why he never bothered investigating the authenticity of these incidences.
However, Molefe said doing that would have been like following “rabbit holes”.
He came to the defence of the Gupta brothers and lambasted the former public protector Thuli Madonsela for failing to protect him.
He said the Guptas had done nothing wrong unless there was proof beyond any reasonable doubt.
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Asked if he felt that the Guptas had betrayed him he said: “If there is a finding of wrongdoing, I will be in a position to say that they’ve betrayed me.”
“The Guptas may have done what they did, I was not part of it. It was the public protector who put this machine gun on rapid fire and destroyed everything before her including me,” said Molefe.
“The person who betrayed me is the public protector, it was the very same person who was supposed to protect me against the onslaught of my name.”
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