Klein was at the state capture commission on Thursday following Tsotsi’s testimony over the past two days.
A screengrab of former Eskom board member Venete Klein.
JOHANNESBURG – Former Eskom board member Venete Klein said she refused to sign approval for the Gupta The New Age (TNA) breakfasts, contrary to former chair Zola Tsotsi’s belief that she was a Gupta board member.
Klein was at the state capture commission on Thursday following Tsotsi’s testimony over the past two days.
Earlier, she said she is offended that Tsotsi listed her among people he believes were Gupta board members and that he associated with former Minister Des van Rooyen.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo noted that it appeared to have been a confusing time for the board.
Klein said the TNA decision is one occasion when she needed to communicate with board chair, Tsotsi, but he didn’t reply to her email as he didn’t on many other occasions.
She is adamant that she never approved the proposal.
Klein testified on Tsotsi’s relationship with the rest of the board, saying that he didn’t want them to communicate directly with executives and she understood his stance because there was a lot happening and being said about Eskom at the time.
She said she also raised concerns about how the board was getting bits and pieces of information from the Eskom War Room that was chaired by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Klein was asked if she supported the inquiry and suspensions that originated from a meeting convened by Dudu Myeni at former President Jacob Zuma’s house in KwaZulu-Natal, she took a while to reply and then went on to say she’d be lying if she said she didn’t.