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Powerships: Government Energy Officials Admit to Meeting Bidder at Posh Tswane Restaurant

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Image credit:amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism

 

  • Last month, DNG Energy chief executive Aldworth Mbalati made explosive allegations of corruption when he filed an application in the Pretoria high court to interdict the government’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMI4P). Read more

Mbalati told the court that he was the victim of an attempted shakedown by senior officials from the department of mineral resources and energy; a businessman associated with their minister, Gwede Mantashe; and a member of the minister’s family.

During the announcement of the preferred bidders, Mantashe decried “rumour mongering” about politically-connecting people being cut into the RMI4P.

“Let me give a rumour that was flighted around by lobbyists. In one of the bidders, among the directors there was a person called Thabo Mokoena.

And they said, ‘There you are, the director general of the department is there!’ “And we said, ‘Go and check carefully,’ and they discovered that it’s some different Thabo Mokoena with another name, not the director general of the department.”

One of Karpowership’s shareholders is Thabo George Mokoena, a former advisor to the minister of state security.

Mantashe continued: “One lobbyist said, ‘In one of these, the son of the minister is involved.’ We said, ‘Go and investigate and find out. Because you’ll not find a son of a minister in any of these bidders.’”

Now, the officials Mbalati implicated have come forward. Director-general Thabo Mokoena and deputy director-general Tseliso Maqubela filed affidavits in court last week, confirming that they met with Mbalati and the two men – whom they identify as controversial lawyer Luvo Makasi and Vuyani Gaga, a business partner of Mantashe’s wife.

Read more of this exclusive story from the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism HERE

 

 

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