The DA is demanding a review of BEE laws after a commission that monitors compliance with this legislation found that Gupta-linked companies used fraudulent BEE certificates to secure contracts from Eskom.
Late in 2017, the DA lodged a complaint with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission about the BEE certificates supplied to the broke power utility by Tegeta, Optimum and Trillian. The companies won multibillion-rand deals with Eskom at the height of the state capture project.
“These certificates were given a stamp of authenticity by a BEE verification agency called ‘BEE Matrix’, who relied on auditors Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo for shareholding information,” DA MP and trade and industry spokesperson Dean Macpherson said on Wednesday.
“Eskom executives then accepted these fraudulent certificates at face value, despite concluding prior contracts with these companies worth billions of rand, which would have excluded them from being microenterprises,” he said.
In its findings, the commission noted that the strength of the black shareholding of Optimum Coal Mine was taken at face value from third-party information supplied by auditors Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo.
It is unclear how they allocated a 50.04% shareholding to Optimum when a high proportion of its shares were held through an Indian-based overseas company whose directors were not South African citizens. Optimum also relied on shares held by Duduzane Zuma through his investment company, Mabengela Investments, to boost its black ownership without this being independently verified.
The consultancy Trillian had misrepresented annual turnover for its BEE certificate as it had received R10m in payments in 2016 and had invoiced Eskom for R30m by the time it submitted a deposed affidavit that it was a microenterprise with a turnover of less than R10m.
Tegeta had concluded a contract with Eskom in March 2015 for R3.8bn and in the same year had received payments from Eskom to the value of R100m and yet was allowed to present a BEE certificate to Eskom classifying the company as a microenterprise with turnover under R10m a year.
BEE Matrix, a verification agency, issued certificates to Tegeta and Optimum that were not factual and in contravention of the Black Economic Empowerment Act, through one of its professionals who is a chartered accountant, Simone Mitchell.
It had signed certificates as an auditor and then as a commissioner of oaths to verify the false and misleading information about black ownership and financial turnover for each business. This information allowed them to qualify as microenterprises.
Macpherson said the DA will lay criminal charges against Tegeta, Optimum and Trillian for misrepresentation of their BEE status and for providing false information to Eskom in terms of section 130 of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act.
The BEE commission initially released the findings to the DA MP in July and emphasised that only the commission could release the report to the public. The party said it decided to release the report on Wednesday after seeking legal advice as the commission had for some "bizarre reason sat on it for two and half months.”
The party will also lay charges against individuals implicated, including former Eskom CFO Anoj Singh and Mitchell.
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