Eskom and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) are taking legal action against the Guptas and their associates.
Eskom and the SIU issued a summons in the North Gauteng High Court earlier this week to recover R3.8-billion allegedly illegally diverted from Eskom to finance the Guptas’ purchase of Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH) from Glencore in 2016.
Including the Gupta brothers (Ajay, Atul and Rajesh), 12 defendants are listed, amongst them former Eskom board members, senior managers and former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
It is a move welcomed by The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation which, in February, rallied 30 civil society organisations in Cape Town to insist that Cyril Ramaphosa empower the National Prosecuting Authority to bring all those implicated in State Capture to justice (a sentiment inspired by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s Christmas call for 2020 to be the ‘Year of the Orange Jumpsuit’).
However, South Africa must conclude it’s extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates if the Guptas are to be held to account in South Africa and time is of the essence—previously the UK attempted to extradite alleged money launderers in Dubai, but the request was dismissed due to five years having lapsed since the alleged crimes occurred.
Earlier this week, one of the defendants, former Eskom Chief Financial Officer, Anoj Singh, told Daily Maverick “I just think Eskom’s taking the view that, ‘We think you stole our money, we don’t have the evidence to get you charged, we’re going to try to recover our money and hope that in that process of trying to recover money we stumble on the evidence that will get you charged’.”
Meanwhile, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, maintains a moral stance on the matter stating, “We will indeed end up owning things that belong to some of them at this point. They [sic] may not be the full R4-billion but Eskom does not have the option of doing nothing in the face of this kind of injustice.”
In light of the recent Covid-19 looting, it is evident that corruption and stealing from the public is still a dangerous pandemic in South Africa.