Former Oakbay CEO Nazeem Howa could still land in hot water despite stepping down from the company this week following revelations of possible corruption in the purchase of Optimum Coal. A few days after Oakbay announced Howa's departure due to health reasons, an affidavit by one of Optimum's business rescue practitioners emerged which described Howa's involvement in the use of a R578-million Eskom pre-payment for coal to help purchase the coal company.The affidavit was part of a disclosure under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.The payment was made to Tegeta Exploration and Resources, a subsidiary of Oakbay, just two days before the company completed its purchase of Optimum earlier this year.story_article_left1Generally, these payments are meant to assist mining companies to bridge gaps in their mining operations or to start new operations.The affidavit signed in July by Piers Marsden, who was working on rescuing the Optimum business, details how he learnt from a Carte Blanche interview with Howa that Eskom had approved the payment on April 11 just six hours after Tegeta's application for finance had been rejected by a consortium of local banks, some of which had cut business ties with the Gupta family, the owners of Oakbay.The family had been R600-million short of the R2.1-billion needed to buy the mine and had a two-day deadline by which to complete the payment."Pursuant to the interview, Howa remarked that the pre-payment had been made on the basis that Optimum was in business rescue and required money for its liquidity and for the start-up of equipment," Marsden said."We confirm that the pre-payment was not made to [Optimum] and that [Optimum] provides a 30-day payment term to Tegeta for the delivery of coal, on behalf of Tegeta, to the Arnot power station," he said.Marsden's affidavit appears to provide further evidence of how the Gupta family have exploited their proximity to power to win contracts and payments from state-owned companies.Marsden said he could not draw any conclusions about the "suspicious activity", but the prevention of corrupt activities legislation placed him under an obligation to report the matter.story_article_right2The Guptas are part of an investigation by the former public protector, Thuli Madonsela, into allegations of state capture. Zuma has maintained that his friends have no influence over him.Howa could not be reached for comment before the Sunday Times went to print.Previously Eskom has defended the pre-payment, saying it was standard industry practice. It cited a number of companies in which it had invested to ensure supplies of coal.Last month the utility announced that Tegeta had repaid the loan. "Tegeta was not out of the norm, and other companies have benefited from such arrangements before - and all of them have paid back the money that was advanced to them," Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said at the time.The Sunday Times has previously reported how Eskom circumvented normal processes to award Tegeta a multibillion-rand coal supply contract, and did not scrap the contract despite the fact that the coal did not meet specifications. This contract formed part of a review by the National Treasury that led to a row between it and Eskom...