Former Eskom executive Matshela Koko. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Esa Alexander) 
“I knew who was ‘Business Man’, it was the chairman,” former Eskom executive Matshela Koko told the State Capture Commission on Tuesday.
Koko was being questioned about the string of emails he sent to infoportal1@zoho.com between July and December 2015 after he returned from a four-month suspension.
Koko and other executives are alleged to have used the email address, attributed only to “Business Man”, to leak confidential Eskom documents to the Guptas through their close associate Salim Essa and take instruction on lucrative deals.
Koko was Eskom’s group executive for the technology and commercial division and acted as CEO after Brian Molefe’s departure.
Appearing at the commission for the third time, Koko claimed former Eskom legal head and acting company secretary Suzanne Daniels gave him the email address when he returned from suspension in July 2015.
He said she told him to use it to communicate with board chairperson Dr Ben Ngubane and that she had access to the account and provided the information sent to Ngubane.
Ngubane and Daniels have claimed the email address belonged to former public enterprises director-general Richard Seleke, which has been widely disproven.
Last year, evidence leader advocate Pule Seleka SC told Ngubane, “The email address most probably belonged to Mr Salim Essa, at least on the evidence we have.” Former Eskom chair Jabu Mabuza told the commission the state-owned enterprise (SOE) believed the account belonged to Essa.
In July 2015, an email sent to the account by a staffer in former public enterprises minister Lynne Brown’s office began, “Dear Salim”.
Koko maintained that he believed he was emailing information to Ngubane. The emails sent in 2015 included documents on an upcoming vacancy at Eskom, the SOE’s response to the Treasury’s cost containment directives and the plans that eventually led to Eskom’s R1.6-billion deal with McKinsey & Co and Trillian Capital Partners.
“I’m shocked, I’m flabbergasted and it angers me if that is indeed the case,” said Koko, responding to testimony that the account belonged to Essa.
“If it turns out that somebody else, Mr Essa, owns the email address or uses the email address, it makes me angry.”
He claimed board members regularly use their personal email addresses and he had no reason to be suspicious until the release of the #GuptaLeaks. He said he did not know Essa in 2015.
“It does not matter for me whether it was Salim Essa or not. It does not matter. What matters to me is that if that email address belongs to an external party, then it’s a serious security breach for me,” said Koko.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo appeared sceptical. Koko’s emails were terse and did not address either Ngubane or Daniels.
“There seems to be no email where you address the person, ‘Dear chairman, Dear Dr Ngubane’ or anything like that,” said Zondo.
“Now it may well be that if it was just one person and we talk about three emails, then one should not make much out of it, but I just note that, if I’m not mistaken, almost everyone else who has used it doesn’t reveal the identity of the person they’re sending the email to,” Zondo continued.
Daniels and former Eskom project manager Abram Masango have testified that Koko introduced them to Essa in meetings at Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, which Koko has denied.
Koko said he addressed his bosses with informal titles such as “chief”, which he did not use in the emails to Business Man.
He said the emails were follow-ups on conversations with Daniels so no introduction was necessary. He also claimed that each email corresponded to Eskom meetings and its work at the time.
Koko was one of the driving forces behind Eskom’s December 2015 decision to prepay Optimum Coal R1.68-billion, a decision he stands by, which included obvious influence from the Gupta family and was allegedly aimed at funding their company Tegeta’s acquisition of the Glencore-owned Optimum.
The Eskom board approved the prepayment to the buyers of Optimum, without reference to Tegeta, on 9 December 2015. The next day, Koko received an email from Business Man with a proposal to turn the R1.68-billion prepayment to Optimum into a guarantee to Tegeta.
Koko forwarded the email to Daniels and the modified deal was rapidly adopted by Eskom. Koko said he thought the email with details of the guarantee proposal came from Ngubane.
Zondo said it “seems awkward” that Ngubane would send an email with detailed information that would normally be handled through negotiations between executives and suppliers.
He asked whether it raised suspicions as to who Business Man was and why he was proposing significant changes to a deal Koko had proposed and the board had adopted a day earlier.
Koko said he didn’t have reason to seek an explanation at the time.
He was also questioned on his claim that he was suspended in March 2015, along with Tshediso Matona, finance director Tsholofelo Molefe and group capital executive Dan Morokane, as a result of his fractured relationship with then chair Zola Tsotsi.
The commission has heard testimony that Tsotsi resisted the proposal to suspend the executives at a meeting with former SAA chair Dudu Myeni and her adviser Nick Linnell at former president Jacob Zuma’s residence.
Koko, the only one of the four executives to return from suspension, maintained that Tsotsi had orchestrated his removal.
Daniels and former Eskom project manager Abram Masango have testified that Koko introduced them to Essa in meetings at Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, which Koko has denied.
He maintains the pair conspired to remove him from Eskom. Masango has been charged with corruption regarding alleged kickbacks from deals related to the Kusile Power Station.
Koko has also dismissed evidence that he travelled to Dubai at the expense of the Guptas in December 2015 and has said he has never met any of the Gupta brothers.
He will continue his testimony at a later date. On Wednesday, former Eskom CFO Anoj Singh, who is also heavily implicated in allegations regarding the Guptas’ deals with Eskom, is due to testify in front of Zondo. DM