DA to lay charges against Eskom CFO, Anoj Singh

20 July 2017

The DA will lay criminal charges against Eskom’s Chief Financial Officer, Anoj Singh, as we have reason to believe that Singh may have played a pivotal role in the Guptas’ capture of Eskom.

The DA will lay charges against Singh for possible breaches of Section 50 (1) of the Public Finance Management Act (PMFA), which states that an accounting officer at a public entity must “ensure reasonable protection of the assets and records of the public entity”and “act with fidelity, honesty, integrity and in the best interests of the public entity in managing the financial affairs of the public entity”.

Furthermore, Section 50 (2) of the PMFA clearly states that an accounting officer at a state owned enterprise may not use their “position or privileges […] for personal gain or to improperly benefit another person”.

Under Section 86 (2) an accounting authority is “guilty of an offence […] or to imprisonment […] if that accounting authority willfully or in a grossly negligent way fails to comply with a provision of Section 50, 51” of the PMFA.

Singh has been linked to a range of corruption scandals and dodgy deals at Eskom which must be fully investigated.

These include but may not be limited to:

- The Trillian contracts of R495 million, as a subcontractor of McKinsey;

- The arbitration settlement of R577 million, reduced from R2.1 billion, for Tegeta;

- Giving Tegeta a R1.6 billion guarantee to purchase Optimum even if it wasn’t used; and

- The upfront coal contract payment to Tegeta.

Based on the absurd explanation Singh provided yesterday, as to why Eskom gave Gupta-linked Tegeta a 72% discount to acquire Optimum, it appears he may be one of a number of seemingly compromised individuals at Eskom who have sought to loot our public coffers.

The DA will also lay charges of false statements, reckless conduct and non-compliance against Singh, under Section 214 (1) of the Companies Act 71 of 2008, which states that a person is guilty of an offence if they “with fraudulent intention, knowingly provided false or misleading information” and if they were party to “an act or omission by a business calculated to defraud [the company] or with another fraudulent purpose".

Under Section 216 of the Act, if a director of a company is convicted of an offence in terms of Section 214 (1), they are liable “to a fine or to imprisonment” of up to 10 years.

As CFO of Eskom, Singh would have been best placed to provide access to those intent on looting the entity for their own selfish gain. This possibility must be fully investigated and should the allegations prove true, the DA will ensure that Singh has his day in court and that he accounts for his hand in the capture of Eskom.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, 20 July 2017