Eskom questions timing of Ramatlhodi’s claims

19th May 2017

By: Megan van Wyngaardt

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

     

Font size: - +

Eskom chairperson Ben Ngubane on Friday said former Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi’s claims that he was placed under pressure by the parastatal to carry out certain decisions were “barefaced lies”.

Earlier this week, Ramatlhodi said Eskom CEO Brian Molefe and Ngubane had, in 2015, asked him to suspend Glencore's mining licences to put pressure on the commodities firm to sell a coal mine to a company owned by the Gupta family.

Glencore in 2015 placed its Optimum coal mine under protection from creditors and later did sell it to South Africa's Tegeta Exploration and Resources, a firm controlled by the Gupta brothers, who deny allegations they wield excessive influence over President Jacob Zuma.

Ngubane further said Ramathlodi’s claims could only be sustained by “unsuspecting or decidedly biased minds”.

“It is absolutely implausible to suggest that a sitting, senior Minister could have been bullied by the officials of a State entity. One would have to be extremely biased against Eskom to even remotely consider these allegations to be true given their ridiculous nature,” Ngubane said in a statement.

He questioned why the former Minister failed to raise this purported violation at the time of its alleged occurrence.

“Did he approach the media at the time it allegedly occurred? Did he report the matter to the police; if he did, what is his case number? Why has it only now become opportune to make these damaging allegations?

“One would have expected that a genuine moralist, which he claims to be, would have brought these serious allegations to the attention of the police and/or the media instantly. Genuine moralists do not hang their morality on convenience. This is evidently an opportune time for him to make the allegation and one can only wonder at his motive,” said Ngubane.

He further highlighted that, during his tenure as Minister, Ramatlhodi stated that he suspended Glencore Optimum’s licence as it did not conduct retrenchments properly. “At no point did he allude to us being the reason thereof.”

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

The functionality you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION