Former Eskom and Transnet chief executive Brian Molefe believes that the withdrawal of the case against him by Corruption Watch is the beginning of the end of the “lies against me”.
This week Corruption Watch filed a notice of withdrawal of their offensive against Molefe to be declared a delinquent director for alleged wrongs he committed during his time at the helm of power utility, Eskom.
Molefe had been accused of having aided an alleged capture of Eskom by the Gupta family during the Zuma years. According to Corruption Watch, he was central to the booting out of Glencore-owned Optimum Coal Mine in favour of Gupta-owned Tegeta.
Molefe also faces allegations of being involved in corruption and fraud in the multi-billion rand procurement of locomotives at Transnet.
Speaking through his lawyer Mpho Molefe, the former Eskom CEO said he had suffered a great deal of untruths and was hopeful that the move by
Corruption Watch spills over to other legal woes he is facing.
Molefe’s lawyer said they were approached by the legal team representing Corruption Watch proposing that they were willing to withdraw the matter
provided both parties pay their respective legal costs.
That led to a case-management meeting between the parties presided over by Judge Aubrey Ledwaba on Thursday when the matter was agreed upon and the notice was issued the following day.
“We agreed to the proposal because it was an admission on their part that their case did not have any merits, it was based on lies and propaganda in social media, Gupta leaks and mainstream media,” said the lawyer.
“Unfortunately, the damage has been done. But we are hoping that this is the beginning of the truth coming to the fore with other matters against Brian suffering the same fate. In fact, we are convinced that all the allegations against Brian are collapsing, lies indeed have short legs.”
Molefe’s lawyer said his client had suffered a great deal, professionally and otherwise because of cases such as this one hanging over his head.
“Despite being hounded out of public service through these lies, Brian found himself also rejected in the private sector because of the dark cloud hanging over his head.
“Brian has suffered because of lies ranging from bogus affidavits submitted by some people at Eskom, same affidavits that were submitted to the Zondo Commission and the questionable Gupta leaks.
“All of them were lies and this withdrawal proves what we have always said.
“Brian is relieved and happy, but he is saying the damage is done. But faith is keeping him upbeat that this is minus one problem and that all the other matters will fall.”
Molefe will now turn his focus to the matter before court about matters relating to his alleged misdemeanours at Transnet.
In this case, the NPA is also facing difficulties to nail Molefe and has been accused of applying dirty tactics by demanding that former NPA boss Shaun Abrahams, who is now practicing privately and is representing Molefe, recuse himself.
Furthermore, the NPA is yet to provide particulars demanded by Brian’s legal team on why they are opposed to Abrahams taking their instructions.
“The Transnet matter which is also collapsing slowly but surely has been postponed until October. In the meantime, the NPA is still insisting on stopping us from [using] Advocate Shaun Abrahams further in the matter,” said the lawyer.
“But what remains shocking is their refusal to give us [a] tangible reason why they object to Abrahams, but we will have a meeting with Shamila Batohi later this month and we hope from that meeting something will emerge.”
The Zondo commission, which investigated allegations of state capture, recommended that the NPA consider prosecuting Brian for alleged contravention of the Public Finance Management Act in his official capacities at Eskom and Transnet.
Meanwhile the NPA got a bloodied nose this week in a separate matter in its tussle with another former Eskom executive Matshela Koko, who is fighting, the prosecuting authority for their alternative dispute resolutions agreement with multinational tech giant ABB.
After failing to submit the documents NPA relied on to enter into the agreement, which Koko insists was unconstitutional, NPA’s attempts of shortcuts were dismissed by the Johannesburg High Court this week. They were ordered to pay the costs.
Koko contends that the ADR agreement between NPA and ABB was unconstitutional and was designed to make him the sacrificial lamb of alleged corruption that took place in the construction of Kusile while saving the skin of the company that has been fingered for graft in many other countries.
Corruption Watch did not respond to questions on why they had dropped the case.
