Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has admitted that links between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the Guptas has had a negative effect on how lenders and ratings agencies view the companies.
Speaking to Talk Radio 702 on Friday‚ Gigaba said he and Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown had several discussions about the state of Eskom following the release of audit findings last week.
On Wednesday, Eskom suspended its chief financial officer‚ Anoj Singh‚ on a precautionary basis‚ pending the outcome of a forensic investigation. The suspension followed an urgent intervention by Gigaba and Brown.
"The issues being raised in the audit findings are serious and very grave. They are grave for the government. They are grave for how the investor community‚ especially the lenders and ratings agencies, and the public, view the governance of our state-owned entities. The minister herself has had several exchanges with the board of Eskom. The board took the right decision. We are standing in full support of the board’s decision‚" Gigaba said.
Singh’s suspension came after Eskom was faced with a threat from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to recall its R15bn loan if no action was taken against Singh and other Eskom officials responsible for the beleaguered company’s qualified audit opinion‚ TimesLIVE has learnt.
In releasing its financials last week‚ Eskom confirmed irregular expenditure to the tune of R3bn‚ but downplayed any possible consequences from its lenders.
However‚ TimesLIVE has learnt that the DBSA’s threat‚ which was issued in a letter on Monday‚ was followed by that of another major bank the next day.
Such action would trigger similar recalls from Eskom’s other lenders‚ which exposes the fiscus to an immediate demand for more than R300bn that Eskom owes a number of lenders.
Two weeks ago the Sunday Times reported that Eskom closed the 2017 financial year with R20bn in its bank accounts.
Gigaba said he was in full support of any investigations conducted by Parliament to get to the bottom of the links between Eskom and the Gupta family.
"It is important that the portfolio committee should do exactly that to establish how far these problems go so that truth can finally come out so that we may know what is happening and what has been happening.
"The issues that are under consideration at the moment relate to the audit findings over the past financial year when I was no longer in the Department of Public Enterprises.… But to the best of my knowledge when I was minister of public enterprises there were no such problems. Had those issues been reported to me‚ I would have acted promptly on them."
He said he was also worried about the allegations linking the Guptas to a lot of government business.
"I am like all South Africans. I am worried about that. But we need to establish fact from allegation.… The fact that there are allegations against an individual does not mean those allegations are true. That is why we have to fully support a judicial commission which will establish the truth and be able to provide clarity to who has done what‚ how did they do it‚ who is complicit in the doing of that wrong‚" he said.
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