Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo still doesn’t understand why former Eskom board chair Zola Tsotsi didn’t object to the role that Dudu Myeni played in a state-owned entity which he was expected to lead.
FILE: Deputy Chief Justice Zondo during the first public hearing on state capture allegations in Johannesburg on 20 August 2018. Picture: AFP
JOHANNESBURG – Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has spent a number of hours trying to understand who between Dudu Myeni and former President Jacob Zuma actually decided to set up an Eskom inquiry and suspend executives in 2015.
Former Eskom board chair Zola Tsotsi has confirmed to the state capture commission that he was called by Myeni to attend a meeting with the president in Durban.
She went on to chair the meeting, singled out executives to be suspended by name and brought a consultant to write the board resolution that made it all possible.
Zondo ran through Tsotsi’s testimony as he grappled with what he was being told: “You get called to Durban as chairperson of the Eskom board. You meet at the president‘s residence. You meet with the chairperson of the board of another SOE. You are surprised as to what she has to do with the affairs of Eskom but she is here, she seems to run the show even when the president is here in the meeting. The president is listening to her, she talks most of the time…”
Zondo still doesn’t understand why Tsotsi didn’t object to the role that Myeni played in a state-owned entity which he was expected to lead.
“The board that’s supposed to be in control [of Eskom] is a new board. They seem to be very much in favour of an idea that comes from outside, of an inquiry and suspension. They run with it… Miss Myeni, providing Mr Linell, drafts resolutions and this board just allows this to happen. That’s strange to me.”
Tsotsi claimed that he too was surprised but clearly not enough to convince other board members to resist until executives, including then-CEO Tshediso Matona were suspended.
Tsotsi continues with his testimony today.