By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former Eskom group executive Matshela Koko, his wife, Mosima and stepdaughter have been arrested on charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.
The charges relate to a multibillion-rand Eskom contract entered into with Swiss engineering company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in 2015. ABB subcontracted to a local company, Impulse International, where Choma was a shareholder. She received R30 million from the deal, some of which then flowed to Mosima Koko.
Koko was a senior executive at Eskom at the time.
ABB has since put aside $325 million (~R6 billion) as a provision to cover costs related to corruption probes at Kusile power station.
The Swiss company won a R2.2 billion contract for work at Kusile in 2015. Its subsequent subcontracting of some of the work out to a company called Impulse International is being probed by authorities.
ABB South Africa has already paid back R1.56 billion as part of a settlement reached in 2020. At the time, it warned that it may have to pay more based on further reviews of its work at Eskom.
In a statement this morning, Sindisiwe Seboka, the spokesperson for the Investigating Directorate said eight people were expected to appear in the Mpumalanga Middleburg Magistrates’ Court on charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering.
“The accused are to be arraigned on charges arising from alleged irregular contracts granted for the building of Kusile Power Stations valued at over R2.2 billion. The accused were arrested in Gauteng and Mpumalanga this morning at the crack of dawn,” she said.
The judicial commission of inquiry into state capture, led by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, found that Koko was ” an integral component of the Gupta family’s strategy to capture Eskom.”
Zondo recommended that Koko should be criminally investigated for a raft of state capture-related crimes, including the ABB deal and the Guptas’ controversial Tegeta deal.
Koko and the other accused are expected to apply for bail when they appear in the Middelburg magistrate’s court later on Thursday.