- \n
- Koko may have leaked a highly-sensitive Eskom legal opinion to the Guptas, and,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Koko stayed in a\u00a0luxury Dubai hotel<\/a> at the\u00a0Guptas\u2019 expense<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u2018The Boss\u2019<\/h5>\n
In November 2015, the Guptas were in negotiation to buy Optimum Coal, but despite Optimum\u2019s dire financial state, the mine\u2019s owner, Glencore, was reluctant to sell.<\/p>\n
On November 3, the business rescue practitioners who had been placed in charge in the struggling mine wrote to Koko, at the time Eskom group executive for generation.<\/p>\n
They informed Koko that if Eskom did not make a reasonable offer to renegotiate their loss-making coal contract, they would have to consider liquidating the company.<\/p>\n
Two days later, Koko wrote back full of vitriol, threatening to seek intervention from the department of mineral resources. Eskom, he warned, may be forced \u201cto review the engagement with Glencore from a portfolio perspective\u201d unless the business rescue practitioners concluded a deal.<\/p>\n
What the #GuptaLeaks now show is that on November 4 and 5, the Guptas, who were offering to buy Optimum from Glencore, were right in the thick of the action.<\/p>\n
Late at night on November 4, two e-mails were sent from the e-mail address [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> Both e-mails bounced through two anonymous e-mail addresses, identified only as \u201cBusiness Man\u201d and \u201cWestern\u201d, before landing up with Gupta lieutenant Ashu Chawla.<\/p>\n
Like other e-mail providers, Yahoo does not reveal the identity of its users. However, the content of the e-mails makes it clear that they either came from Koko or from someone similarly senior at Eskom.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Update<\/em>: We have since confirmed that the email address [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> belongs to Koko and was being used by Koko only a few months earlier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The first e-mail was sent at 10.39pm with the message: \u201cPlease give the Boss. The fight begins\u201d. Attached was a confidential correspondence between Eskom and one of the Guptas\u2019 competitors.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2017\/07\/31\/screenshotofeskomthefightbegins.png\")
<\/p>\nThe second e-mail was sent at 11.46pm. This one contained a legal opinion that Eskom received from its own legal counsel \u2013 Eskom wanted to know two things: Could a court remove Optimum\u2019s business rescue practitioners? And could Eskom force Optimum to keep delivering coal at the loss-making price of R150\/ton, now that the mine had been placed in business rescue?<\/p>\n
The legal opinion warned that Eskom was in a weak bargaining position, especially considering that \u201cEskom currently had no supply of coal; has not considered and\/or identified an alternative supply\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Eskom\u2019s lawyers advised the executives to negotiate with Glencore.<\/p>\n
The last thing any responsible Eskom executive would want is for a sensitive legal opinion like this to fall into the hands of the company that was in negotiations to buy the mine from Glencore.<\/p>\n
But whoever \u201cMatshela2010\u201d is, he or she delivered the damning legal opinion to the Guptas.<\/p>\n
By 10.05am the following morning, the Guptas had both the Eskom legal opinion as well a draft of\u00a0Koko\u2019s vitriolic letter\u00a0<\/a>that he would later send to Optimum\u2019s business rescue practitioners.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2017\/07\/31\/doc3draftreplytobrps.png\")
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not clear how the Guptas received Koko\u2019s letter, still in draft format \u2013 all the #GuptaLeaks shows is that the letter came from Rajesh \u201cTony\u201d Gupta\u2019s e-mail account.<\/p>\n
Within days of Koko\u2019s letter being sent, the business rescue practitioners agreed to enter formal negotiations with the Guptas.<\/p>\n
Read the emails and documents from Koko\u2019s private email address that made their way to the Guptas:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Email<\/a> regarding Eskom’s legal position sent from “Wdrsa1” to Gupta lieutenant Ashu Chawla.<\/li>\n
- Attachment<\/a>: Legal opinion regarding Eskom’s rights relating to Optimum Coal’s business rescue.<\/li>\n
- Email from Tony Gupta<\/a> to Ashu Chawla with Matshela Koko’s draft reply to joint business rescue practitioners with Optimum’s “options”.<\/li>\n
- Koko’s attached draft reply<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- The draft reply’s document properties show<\/a> who created it.<\/li>\n
- Email to Ashwu Chawla<\/a> with attached confidential correspondence between Eskom and one of the Guptas\u2019 competitors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The R1.68-billion prepayment<\/h5>\n
A month later, Glencore had agreed to sell and the Guptas\u2019 Tegeta was about to enter the mining major league \u2013 but only if it could come up with the R2.15-billion purchase price for Optimum Coal.<\/p>\n
The #GuptaLeaks now reveal that the Guptas planned to fund much of the acquisition from Eskom\u2019s books using a R1.68-billion prepayment from Eskom against future coal deliveries from Optimum.<\/p>\n
Correspondence between Koko, Tegeta chief executive Ravindra Nath and Tony Gupta shows that on December 9, 2015, Tegeta wrote to Koko referring to a meeting where it appeared the prepayment had been agreed in principle.<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0letter the Tegeta<\/a> boss confidently asks Koko \u201cto kindly send us a written confirmation regarding the payment for supply of coal amounting to R1,680,000,000 \u2026 detailing the agreed terms and conditions\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2017\/07\/31\/screenshot2017-07-31at075455.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTegeta even attached their lawyer\u2019s banking details, apparently convinced the prepayment was a done deal.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Read the letter here<\/a> or via Dropbox here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The exchange took place even before Tegeta announced on December 11 that it had signed a deal to buy Optimum for R2.15-billion \u2013 in other words, it appears Tegeta planned to fund its acquisition of a major coal mine in part by pre-selling coal from the mine it did not yet own.<\/p>\n
It is not clear why Eskom appears not to have followed through, but it is now well-known that four months later, Koko headed a late-night special tender committee meeting that gifted Tegeta the final R659-million prepayment it needed to finalise the Optimum Coal acquisition.<\/p>\n
The spectre of load-shedding<\/h5>\n
In June 2016, when Koko was first confronted about the prepayment during an interview with Carte Blanche<\/em>, he initially denied that any prepayment had been made, then changed tack, saying: \u201cI\u2019m not aware that it\u2019s paid. But in the event that it\u2019s paid, it\u2019s not unusual,\u201d adding: \u201cLet\u2019s say I\u2019ve made a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then Koko, Molefe and Eskom board chair Ben Ngubane have spun a story that the prepayment to Tegeta was necessary to avert load shedding during winter.<\/p>\n
In countless statements, Eskom has detailed how ongoing threats of strikes left their power stations short of coal, and by April Eskom\u2019s only option was to offer a prepayment to Tegeta to be spent on equipment and opening up new mining areas.<\/p>\n
But the emergence of Tegeta\u2019s December 9 letter to Koko, asking for a prepayment four months earlier, confirms what has long been suspected: that the primary objective was to use Eskom\u2019s balance sheet to fund the Guptas\u2019 purchase of Optimum Coal.<\/p>\n
Two days in Dubai<\/h5>\n
In January last year, just a few days after Tegeta took possession of Optimum, Koko allegedly flew to Dubai. Records from the #GuptaLeaks show that Koko stayed just two nights at the Oberoi Hotel in Dubai \u2013 Monday 4 and Tuesday 5, at a total cost of around R11,500. The\u00a0bill<\/a> was\u00a0picked up<\/a> by the Guptas.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2017\/07\/31\/doc5hotelbillscreenshot.png\")
<\/p>\nIn the months following Koko\u2019s brief stopover in Dubai, Gupta-owned companies benefited from astonishing growth of their business with Eskom:<\/p>\n
- \n
- In January 2016, Eskom dished out a lucrative \u201cemergency\u201d coal contract that saw Tegeta supplying coal at upwards of R470\/ton to Arnot power station for nine months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- In April 2016, Eskom handed Tegeta the R659-million prepayment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- In August 2016, Eskom tried to sign three contracts worth R10.5-billion with Tegeta in the space of a few weeks without following a competitive bidding process \u2013 the two smaller contracts were blocked by Treasury but Tegeta received a R7-billion contract to supply Komati power station.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- In addition to this, Trillian, a company belonging to Gupta associate Salim Essa, is alleged to have benefitted from hundreds of millions of rands of consulting work from Eskom during the same period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Read “<\/strong>R10bn in 15 days \u2013 another massive Eskom boost for the Guptas” <\/strong>here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Note:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- The story was updated after publication to include links to emails and documents from the #GuptaLeaks trove.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Persons named in this story were not contacted for comment. This is permitted by the South African Press Code in a situation where a publication \u201chas reasonable grounds for believing that by doing so it would be prevented from reporting\u201d. We invite those named in this article to provide us with comment and clarification after publication.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism<\/a> is an independent non-profit. Be an amaB supporter<\/a> to help it do more. Sign up for its newsletter<\/a> to get more.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Scorpio is the Daily Maverick\u2019s new investigative unit. If you\u2019d like to support its work, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/documents\/2017\/06\/06\/gutpaleakslogos1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The #GuptaLeaks have exposed the extent to which Matshela Koko appears to have been captured by the Guptas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30639,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions\/30639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Scorpio is the Daily Maverick\u2019s new investigative unit. If you\u2019d like to support its work, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism<\/a> is an independent non-profit. Be an amaB supporter<\/a> to help it do more. Sign up for its newsletter<\/a> to get more.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Persons named in this story were not contacted for comment. This is permitted by the South African Press Code in a situation where a publication \u201chas reasonable grounds for believing that by doing so it would be prevented from reporting\u201d. We invite those named in this article to provide us with comment and clarification after publication.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- The story was updated after publication to include links to emails and documents from the #GuptaLeaks trove.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- In addition to this, Trillian, a company belonging to Gupta associate Salim Essa, is alleged to have benefitted from hundreds of millions of rands of consulting work from Eskom during the same period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- In August 2016, Eskom tried to sign three contracts worth R10.5-billion with Tegeta in the space of a few weeks without following a competitive bidding process \u2013 the two smaller contracts were blocked by Treasury but Tegeta received a R7-billion contract to supply Komati power station.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- In April 2016, Eskom handed Tegeta the R659-million prepayment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- In January 2016, Eskom dished out a lucrative \u201cemergency\u201d coal contract that saw Tegeta supplying coal at upwards of R470\/ton to Arnot power station for nine months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Attachment<\/a>: Legal opinion regarding Eskom’s rights relating to Optimum Coal’s business rescue.<\/li>\n
- Email<\/a> regarding Eskom’s legal position sent from “Wdrsa1” to Gupta lieutenant Ashu Chawla.<\/li>\n
- Update<\/em>: We have since confirmed that the email address [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> belongs to Koko and was being used by Koko only a few months earlier.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Koko stayed in a\u00a0luxury Dubai hotel<\/a> at the\u00a0Guptas\u2019 expense<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n