Brian Molefe returns to state capture inquiry tomorrow.

By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

Former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe will return to the state capture commission witness box on Tuesday morning.

Molefe will be expected to finish what he started in late January this year when his testimony was cut short. At the time, after three hours of testifying, commission chairperson deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo adjourned proceedings amid a Covid-19 scare.

He had implicated President Cyril Ramaphosa in the capture of Eskom by Glencore — a company of which he was once a shareholder.

Molefe had accused Ramaphosa of having acted as a political shield and chief lobbyist for the interests of the foreign company. According to him, Ramaphosa had done this through his then position as chairperson of Eskom’s “war room”, to which the Eskom executive directly reported.

“He was, in fact, the de facto chairperson of Eskom and de facto chairperson of a de facto board that was outside the company.”

Molefe said what made the situation worse was that Ramaphosa was also chairperson of Glencore, which wanted R8bn “unjustly transferred” to it by Eskom.

When the Glencore deal was done in 2012 and he bought shares, he was made chairperson. In 2014 he became deputy president of the country and chairperson of the war room.

“In fact, he sold his shares to Pembani but at the time I arrived at Eskom, when he was deputy president and chairing the war room, the deal (sale of shares) had not gone through. It was awaiting Competition Commission approval, which was granted in August. I suspect there may have been a conflict of interest.”

Molefe said his only sin at Eskom was trying to stop Glencore from taking Eskom to financial ruin.

He has also defended his relationship with the Gupta family, while he took a couple of cheap shots at other leaders such as Tito Mboweni, Thuli Madonsela and Mcebisi Jonas.

One of the issues Molefe is expected to be grilled on Tuesday would be his role in the approval of a R1.68bn bank guarantee in December 2015 and a prepayment four months later to Gupta company Tegeta.

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