The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)’s corruption case against former Eskom executive Matshela Koko was dealt a near fatal blow when its star witness, an engineering multinational, ABB, made a U-turn and admitted in court papers that it has no incriminating evidence against him.
In the court papers filed in the Joburg High Court, ABB, which had entered into an agreement with the NPA to provide evidence and testify against Koko, stated that it has no evidence of corrupt payment made to the revered chemical engineer.
“I admit that ABB does not have any evidence of payments made directly to Koko, and ABB’s investigation uncovered circumstantial evidence that consistently corrobor-
ated the [corruption] schemes,” ABB lawyer, Maryjane Simaan wrote.
ABB made the startling revelations when responding to Koko’s application
petitioning the Johannesburg High Court to set aside the sweetener deal between the
entity and the NPA.
In his replying affidavit, Koko used ABB’s admission as the primary justification for nullifying the agreement between the NPA and ABB.
He said the admission demonstrates that the agreement between the NPA and ABB relied on false information to shield the entity from accountability for the corruption it has acknowledged.
The NPA entered into the controversial agreement, called “Alternative Dispute Resolution and Cooperation Agreement (ADRCA) with ABB on the condition that the firm delivers the heads of Koko and other Eskom officials for allegedly receiving kickbacks from it during the construction of Kusile Power Station.
This was after the NPA’s attempt to find evidence linking Koko to receiving bribes hit a brick wall. The prosecuting authority raided his house the night before his arrest in 2022.
“In the search and seizure affidavit on October 26, 2022, investigating officer Lt-Col Johannes du Plessis expressly stated that the state lacked the evidence to prove the facilitation of the alleged corrupt payments.
“Advocate [Andrea] Johnson [of the NPA], in her answering affidavit, has not refuted this,” Koko stated in his replying affidavit.”
Despite failing to gather incriminating evidence, the NPA went ahead and charged Koko with corruption and fraud, among others, after banking on the ABB’s evidence and
testimony.
But the case was struck off the roll when he appeared in the Middleburg Specialised
Commercial Crimes Court after the state repeatedly asked for postponement.
Koko insists to the high court where he wants the ADRCA to be set aside that the deal was a sham, established to implicate him based on non-existent evidence of accepting kickbacks.
In her written response, Johnson argued that the court should dismiss Koko’s review application because he is ventilating matters that should and will be raised in the criminal court.
But Koko rejected her version of events.
“I deny that I am asking this court, in civil proceedings, to decide on the merits of the pending criminal prosecution. I have stated that I have no criminal matter pending in any court. The [NPA’s] decision to indict me came to naught when the regional magistrate removed the matter from the court roll regarding Section 342A (3)(c) of the Criminal Procedure Act on November 21, 2023,” Koko replied.
Koko was granted reprieve when Middleburg Special Commercial Crimes Court regional magistrate Stanley Jacobs in his ruling also slammed NPA for dilly-dallying.
“Despite the investigation against the accused pending for more than six years, the flow of funds report, data analyst
report, and forensic report are either incomplete or not available,” Jacobs, who has since been dragged to the Magistrates Commission by the NPA, wrote in his ruling.
