Cape Town - Former Eskom acting chief executive Matšhela Koko, his wife Mosima and his two stepdaughters, Thato Choma and Koketso Aren is out on bail after having being arrested at dawn on Thursday in connection with a case related to corruption in the building of Eskom’s Kusile Power Station.
The Koko family had been arrested with four others, former SA Local Government Association (SALGA) Chief Executive Thabo Mokwena, Eskom Kusile Project Director Hlupheka Sithole, Lawyer Johannes Coetzee and Watson Seswai who were also released on bail.
They appeared at the Middelburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on charges of corruption, fraud, and money laundering.
The conditions of bail for Matshela Koko, Mokwena, Seswai and Sithole include surrendering their passports, being banned from leaving their province of residence without the express permission of the investigating officer, and then only after supplying him with a full itinerary.
They were also ordered to report to a police station once a week while remitted on bail.
NPA Investigating Directorate (ID) national spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka said they had been arrested on charges arising from alleged irregular contracts granted for the building of Kusile Power Stations valued at over R2 billion while Koko was a senior executive at Eskom.
In 2009, Eskom contracted with Alstom to undertake the C&I (Control and Instrumentation) contract at Kusile Power Station. Alstom did not perform.
Eskom engineers recommended that Siemens be appointed. The State alleges that Group Executive Technology and Commercial Koko influenced and abused his position to have Siemens, Billfinger-Mauell and Swiss engineering company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) invited to bid to a closed tender.
Mauell dropped out of the tender process and ABB South Africa was eventually appointed in 2015 and then subcontracted a local firm, Impulse International.
Choma was a shareholder at impulse and allegedly got R30 million from the deal. Some of the proceeds allegedly flowed to Mosima Koko.
ABB was awarded the C&I multimillion rand contract. The State alleges that it then resulted in ABB South Africa appointing a company owned by Thabo Mokwena to provide skills development and industrialisation (SDL) work to the value of R96 million contract, excluding VAT.
In 2016 four variation orders were granted to ABB South Africa, by Sithole to provide extra work not covered in the initial multi-billion-rand C&I contract. The State alleges that money flowed from the multibillion-rand contract and that this was the first attempt to launder money on behalf of Koko.
In 2015- 2017 several contracts were awarded of which four form part of this matter for Impulse International.
They were for providing Eskom and Rotek Industries with SAP work packages, specialised engineers and managers to oversee the different interphase contractors amongst other functions. The state further alleges that a portion of these contracts was used to butter hands.
In the court papers it is alleged that money laundering vehicles were set up by Coetzee to syphon money from Impulse International to benefit the Koko family.
The arrest was as a result of joint stakeholder engagements between the ID, Hawks and the SIU.
“This arrest is about accountability and rule of law. We must execute the NPA’s constitutional mandate for justice – it is imperative for the country and its people that we serve without fear, favour or prejudice’’ says ID head Adv Andrea Johnson.