The net is closing in on the eight Germans who are alleged to have colluded with former Eskom CEO Matshela Koko to loot the power utility, which has become the biggest risk to the country’s economy due to the constant breakdown of power plants across the country.
German authorities confirmed to Sunday World this week that cooperation between the two countries was continuing to bring former employees of Swiss engineering company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) to book for allegedly bribing
Eskom executives to win lucrative tenders.
Last month, Sunday World reported that the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate (ID) seemingly mishandled the issue and missed an opportunity to apprehend the Germans.
The prosecuting authority’s delay in handing over evidence to German authorities two years ago appears to be the reason the eight Germans are still walking free in Europe. They did not appear in the dock with Koko and seven others last month in a Mpumalanga court.
Koko was arrested alongside his wife, Mosima, and his two stepdaughters, Koketso Aren and Thato Choma. Also in the firing line are former South African Local Government Association chief executive Thabo Mokwena; Eskom’s project director at Kusile, Frans Sithole; lawyer Johannes Coetzee; and businessperson Watson Seswai.
Seven entities are also listed in the draft charge sheet.
The public prosecutor’s office in Mannheim, Germany, said the probe into Koko’s alleged co-conspirators was continuing.
“The investigations including the cooperation with the South African authorities are still ongoing. Further comments cannot be made with regard to the personal rights of the suspects,” Isa Böhmer, a public relations officer, said.
The ABB investigation led to the arrest of Koko and his seven co-accused. Last week, a settlement payment of over R2.5-billion in punitive damages for the crimes committed at Eskom at the height of the state capture project was made. The punitive amount is in addition to the R1.6-billion ABB paid to Eskom in 2020.
However, less has been said about the eight Germans suspected to have worked with Koko. In December 2020, Uwe Siegrist, a senior public prosecutor with the Mannheim Prosecution Office, requested a mutual legal assistance agreement with South Africa to obtain evidence to be used in pursuit of an indictment and criminal proceedings of the eight implicated.
Siegrist, in a letter, states one of the Germans who had done business with Eskom with a previous firm in 2014, identified Koko as a “key figure”.
On Friday, News24 reported on how ABB has been a serial offender in some countries, including the US and Switzerland where its executives paid bribes. The Swiss company is paying $327-million in its home country where it acknowledged not taking necessary and reasonable steps to prevent bribery.
ABB has also pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices and the US foreign bribery law.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday hailed the ABB settlement, saying it was a huge development in holding those responsible for state capture to account. “For the last five years, we have been working hard to end the looting of resources meant for the benefit of South Africa’s people, to prosecute those responsible and recover stolen funds,” Ramaphosa said, writing in the governing party’s ANC Today.
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