Daniels hits back at Koko, tells Zondo commission he is lying
The commission of inquiry into state capture has again heard of alleged lies told to it by former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko.
His former colleague Suzanne Daniels, who was the power utility’s secretary and then head of legal, appeared at the commission on Tuesday.
Koko also labelled Daniels a liar who is trying to drive a narrative to implicate him and others in corruption at Eskom.
But Daniels hit back at Koko on Tuesday, telling the commission that she believes he has a lot of explaining to do.
The commission dealt with a list of transactions that Koko was involved in at Eskom, which he said were written down by Daniels and approved by the board for him to focus on.
Some of those transactions included contracts with companies linked to Gupta associate Salim Essa, McKinsey, Regiments and Trillian.
The list had a projection of revenue for these entities and not Eskom.
Daniels told the commission that she did not author that list and that it came from outside the company.
“I reject Mr Koko’s view that this is a document prepared by me on the basis that the board wanted this. This is a document that he came with that he said these are the transactions his principles wanted him to focus on. This is what he started asking his subordinates to get him information on, this ties in with the emails he sent.
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“In these transactions, Mr Koko was what in Eskom calls the end-user or was the driver and responsible for those transactions to take place. So when he talks about this list I was taken aback by the manner in which he distanced himself from these transactions,” said Daniels.
She added that Koko had a lot to explain to the commission regarding these transactions.
Daniels also told the commission it was Koko who decided to settle with Gupta-owned Tegeta in 2017.
At the time, Koko was acting CEO and Tegeta owned Eskom R2.1 billion in penalties for its low-quality coal.
The power utility had released a statement saying it would be claiming what Tegeta owes, but made a U-turn and decided to settle.
Daniels said she was uncomfortable about this because there was no basis in law or technically that initiated such a decision.
She said Koko’s reason for the settlement was “to make the matter go away”.
