National Treasury said in a statement issued on Sunday morning that it has received the draft forensic report on the alleged irregularities in the awarding by Eskom of a coal contract to Tegeta and in Transnet’s procurement of locomotives from China South Rail.
Treasury said the report has been given to the relevant parties for comment. These parties have been given two weeks to respond.
Treasury has undertaken to make the report public once it has reviewed all the comments.
City Press reported on Sunday that a draft Treasury report on its ongoing investigation into state capture reveals the extent to which the Gupta family’s lieutenants bent over backwards to help them loot Transnet and Eskom.
At the end of May this year The Department of Mineral Resources told Parliament it would meet with the business rescue practitioners in charge of Tegeta’s mining operations. Its operations have been under business rescue, and the National Union of Mineworkers has expressed strong doubt about its ability to pay salaries.
The business rescue practitioners had to approach the courts in April to seek an interdict, after they were barred from accessing the Gupta-owned businesses after they started questioning a transaction involving Tegeta’s shares.
Pravin Gordhan told reporters earlier this year that during a site visit to Optimum Coal Mine he learned that conveyor belts had not be operating for months, all of this while Tegeta continued to get money from power utility Eskom. In December 2015, Tegeta bought Optimum, which includes a mine of the same name, the Koornfontein operation and a stake in Africa’s biggest coal-export terminal, from Glencore.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on mineral resources quizzed the department’s delegation on the operations, legal status and ownership of the Tegeta mines. Director general Thabo Mokoena told the committee that the business rescue process is still on track, in their understanding.
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