Former Eskom acting chief executive Matshela Koko has lamented that the Zondo commission was allowing witnesses to come before it to lie about his alleged aiding of Gupta looting and “get away with it”.
Koko returned to the stand before the inquiry for the sixth time on Tuesday, where he was questioned on his alleged role in the questionable R1.6bn advisory contract paid to McKinsey and Gupta-linked Trillian between 2015 and 2016 among other serious allegations.
Koko, however, quickly turned focus on those who implicated him and accused the commission’s investigators of quickly following up on evidence that was against him while others were being treated with kid gloves, including former Eskom head of legal Susanne Daniels.
Daniels had testified before the commission and accused Koko and former Eskom CFO Anoj Singh of having conspired to facilitate the purchase of Optimum Coal from Glencore by the Guptas' Tegeta before it was given irregular advantages, including a R659m prepayment before it even supplied coal to Eskom.
Koko has, however, denied knowing Gupta associate Salim Essa despite their leaked e-mail exchanges in which he sent information in relation to contracts at the power utility.
He told the commission on Tuesday that it was Daniels who had dealings and e-mail exchanges with Essa and that her computer system image would reveal this if it were to be secured and analysed.
He told Zondo that he had been hurt to learn that the commission had still not secured Daniels’ computer.
“Your investigators and legal team are very quick to make a follow up, they have got blue-eyed witnesses. I still don’t understand why the computer of Ms Daniels or its images were not made available to the specialists,” he said.
Koko said the computer had not been secured deliberately “because they are protecting Ms Daniels and they don’t want to disturb her evidence”.
He accused Daniels of having blind-copied Essa in the e-mail conversations between the two. “Ms Daniels ought to know who she was talking to when she e-mailed me and copied the info-portal e-mail address. She ought to know who she was blind-copying that she did not want me to know,” he said.
Among those accused by Koko of having lied to the commission is former Glencore chief executive Clinton Ephron.
Commission chair, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, said Koko was allowed to expose any of the witnesses he accused of lying before the commission. “It is important that if you believe that the evidence they give in the affidavit is not true, you give the evidence that will contradict them,” Zondo said.
Zondo told evidence leader Adv Pule Seleka SC that commission investigators, the legal team and the specialist who worked on the e-mails had to meet with Koko’s lawyers today to sort out his grievances.
“What I would like to happen is that, in your presence and in presence of investigators, Mr Koko and his legal team can articulate exactly what he says and his view should be looked into,” he said.
Zondo pointed out that “there should be no perception that the commission does not want to look into certain matters”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.