SOUTH AFRICAN former Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown on Friday told the Zondo Commission that she had always been viewed as a corruption-buster, but was powerless to stop the corruption at Eskom because the model was flawed.

“I have always been viewed as a corruption-buster,” Brown told the commission, referencing her time in local government, near the start of her testimony, which was given via video link, on Friday.

“I hope the (commission) process can set the record straight again. This is a time for me to clear my name. I am grateful for the opportunity to appear before the commission, and I support it,” she said.

Prior to this, she had told Justice Zondo and evidence leader advocate Pule Seleka that if they had “read everything about me in the papers”, she “would not be surprised” if they thought she lived a lavish lifestyle, ostensibly the proceeds of corruption.

Brown implied she had been ridiculed because of Eskom’s inability to keep the lights on, even though the rolling blackouts started in 2008, years before she was appointed in May 2014.

“Nobody is blamed at the moment for any of the load shedding. I was called the minister of load shedding. I would like you to reflect on that.”

Shortly after Brown’s appointment, she recommended the appointment of a new Eskom board to Cabinet, which was accepted by December 2014.

These appointees included numerous individuals with personal or business relationships with the infamous Gupta family:

• Dr Ben Ngubane, who became chairman and who served as a co-director with Salim Essa in the natural resources exploration company, Gade Oil and Gas (Pty) Ltd from May 2013 to November 2014;
• Romeo Khumalo, who was a co-director with Essa at Ujiri Mining Technologies (Pty) Ltd until Essa resigned in August 2015;
• Mark Pamensky, who was on the board of the Gupta-controlled Oakbay Resources and Energy (Pty) Ltd until May 2017; 
• Nazia Carrim, who is married to a first cousin of Essa; 
• Muhammad Noor Hussain; and
• Viroshni Naidoo, a friend and business associate of the Guptas and Essa.

Brown then brought in Brian Molefe and Anoj Singh from Transnet to Eskom. They first served in acting positions as CEO and CFO respectively, before their positions became permanent in October 2015. 

Under their collective control, Eskom entered into a myriad controversial deals, which have been the subject of the State Capture inquiry and a parliamentary investigation.

Asked by Justice Zondo on Friday about the state of the power utility when she was first appointed minister, Brown described it as being laden with “chaos”. 

“But if you had a tender (with Eskom) you were a millionaire or billionaire overnight. So there are a lot of questions about that too”.

Responding to a monologue by Justice Zondo about possible failures of oversight creating grounds for corruption, and the entity’s inability to arrest its massive debt, Brown said: “In my time I couldn’t get rid of corruption, nor could the people before me. I think the answer has nothing to do with the company, but with the model.”

She said that although oversight was practised at Eskom, it was done “through a department that has to interrogate the documentation that Eskom brings. Anything else to be interrogated goes to the relevant authorities, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) or National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and so on.”

 During the second year in her ministerial post, she said, she had started to “engage” the SIU on Transnet, Denel and Eskom. “We spent six months deliberating terms with the SIU.”

There was a “culture” in SOEs of contracts not being put to tender, and procurement being decentralised. There was also no “step-in clause”, she said, which meant the company had to be left to run itself. “The PFMA [Public Finance Management Act] doesn’t make provision for you to step in and stop a tender.”

Returning to load shedding, she said: “We were told at some stage that load shedding had been solved, but it’s back. Maybe we have to look at who is effective, and people who have better expertise can be brought in.”

Brown said that in other countries, state-owned-entities were run as commercial businesses, which were catalysts for economic growth. She said she believed that all 720 of South Africa’s SEOs should be taken out of government’s control, but should not be privatised.

“Some can be merged, others can be closed. We must decide which are strategic, like has been done in Singapore, Norway, China and the US. Its greatest shareholder must be government, but it must be structured like a company, so it isn’t accountable to some politician somewhere, but to a board and a state that can get dividends.”

Continuing on the theme of oversight later in the session, Brown was asked by Seleka about Eskom pulling out of the War Room – established in December 2014 and chaired by then deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa – which had been appointed to deal with the load shedding crisis.

Seleka had asked if the War Room was not a good idea in pursuing an oversight role.

 “You were part of the ministerial committee assigned to the War Room. After Mr Brian Molefe was appointed as CEO, the (then) board chairman Mr Ben Ngubane wrote to you saying Eskom would no longer be participating in or responding to the War Room. That [took] away government’s efforts at oversight. Why was the War Room terminated?”

“You will have to ask then president (Jacob Zuma) that,” replied Brown.