By Daniel Itai, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Two former Eskom managers were today nabbed for charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Abram Masango and France Hlakudi allegedly siphoned money worth R745 million (US$53 million) out of the state owned electricity entity through dodgy deals.
The Hawks who arrested the former managers said the corruption charges backdated to 2015.
“In June 2015, Eskom’s Kusile project management team submitted a request to Eskom Procurement Committee for a mandate to negotiate and conclude a contract with one of the companies. The contract was approved for R745 million to build two Air Cooled Condensers units at Kusile power station”.
It is alleged that from February 2015 to July 2017, the appointed companies, other related entities and individuals shared approximately R30 million (US$2.1 million) amongst themselves.
Investigations began when suspicions were raised into the construction of two large projects at Medupi and Kusile power stations.
This revealed that there was apparent gross manipulation of contractual agreements between contractors, Eskom employees and third parties at Kusile power station.
The suspects were arrested early this morning in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in collaboration with the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigative Directorate,” read the statement from the Hawks.
South Africa has been facing a lot of erratic power cuts over the past couple of days which have had stiff repercussions on a majority of South Africans.
South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa has as of late, labelled the recent power cuts as an act of sabotage by some employees of Eskom.
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