Former Transnet and Eskom CEO Brian Molefe has vowed to seek justice and revenge on those who participated in the demise of his successful career.
This after non-profit organisation Corruption Watch made a court withdrawal application. The non-profit organisation had initially sought to declare Molefe delinquent director.
In 2019, Corruption Watch applied to have former Eskom directors including Molefe declared delinquent so that they cannot hold a directorship in a private company ever again, and for seven years in a state-owned company, in terms of section 162(5)(c) of the Companies Act.
After many years of career bruising and negative media coverage, on June 7, the North Gauteng high court handed down Corruption Watch’s formal notice of withdrawal of the case against Molefe, which was done “by agreement between the parties” with each party to bear their costs.
Attorney for Molefe, Mpho Molefe, told the Sunday Independent that his client would consider his options including seeing a legal claim against Corruption Watch.
“He will also consider claims against all those who made the false allegations against him as well as against Eskom.
“The withdrawal is an admission by the applicant that their application was without merit.
“According to our client, the allegations by the applicant were false, the sources relied on were dubious and the application as a whole was an abuse of the judicial processes. Our client’s financial situation was badly affected by this application.
“Amongst others, our client could not be admitted as a legal practitioner and to date his career is in limbo,” he said.
Molefe’s lawyer added that for now, his client would “take it one step at a time” and focus on other court matters which he believed would “undoubtedly” suffer the same fate.
Approached for comment, Corruption Watch Executive Director Karam Singh said that their application was drafted before the Zondo Commission, where Molefe later testified.
Singh conceded that challenges were sustaining their application based on the way it was formulated.
However, he said that this did not mean that Molefe was exonerated.
“The Zondo Commission recommended further investigations around his conduct at Eskom and he has been indicted on Transnet and faces charges.
“Other matters have been referred to CIPC to have court proceedings instituted against the former directors of various SOEs including Eskom,” said Singh.
During his appearance at the State Capture Commission headed by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Molefe made shocking revelations about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s business involvement with Eskom, Glencore, and Optimum Coal Mine (OCM), and accused him of collapsing Eskom.
He said Ramaphosa was sold a percentage of shares by Glencore so that he would use his political influence to negotiate profitable deals on behalf of the company at Eskom.
”They knew the profitability of the company could only come from the successful renegotiation of the price. Ramaphosa was their bet,” said Molefe.
According to Molefe, Glencore demanded that Eskom increase the price of coal per ton from R150 to R530, which would mean a transfer of R6 billion from Eskom to the company over three years.
He said Eskom would have paid an amount of R8bn, including the writing off of R2bn in penalties that Glencore wanted from the power utility for its (Glencore’s) failure to conduct a due diligence exercise before buying OCM.
”It was going to financially ruin Eskom,” said Molefe, adding that this would have led to the poor and most vulnerable subsidising the dealings of the rich.
Ramaphosa was chair of the OCM just before he was appointed deputy president of the country by former president Jacob Zuma.
Molefe had testified that Ramaphosa had sought to use his position as deputy president to benefit Optimum Coal Mine – a company with a coal supply agreement with Eskom.
Ramaphosa also led a war room which the Eskom management reported to.
In December 2021, a warrant of arrest for Molefe was issued, however, he and his co-accused were only arrested on August 29, 2022, and appeared at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in the R398.4 million Transnet fraud and corruption case where they were released on a bail of R50 000 each at their first court appearance in August.
At the time, Molefe’s attorney said he suspected that somebody or some people were interfering with the NPA and giving instructions for some reason unknown to them.
“It appears they were waiting for some events to happen to create a negative impression around our client while legitimising their plans to collapse some of the entities my client has headed.
On October 11, Molefe is still due before the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, along with other former Transnet executives including Siyabonga Gama, Garry Pita, Phetolo Ramosebudi, as well as Regiments Capital directors Niven Pillay and Litha Nyhonyha.
Sunday Independent
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