I didn't lie about Molefe, minister insists

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown insisted yesterday she had not lied to parliament after the ANC said her submission on the reappointment of Eskom CEO Brian Molefe amounted to perjury.

Speaking yesterday ahead of her departmental budget vote debate, Brown said she had told no lies at a heated meeting with the portfolio committee on public enterprises earlier in the week.

"I remain a member of the ANC whether they have issued 5000 statements, I am a deployee of the ANC. I subject myself to the wisdom of the party leadership.

"The ANC has a right to say what it wishes to say and the ANC will call me and tell me that and I will defend myself or accept it."

• State capture by the Guptas: The Silent CoupAnother damning indictment of the Gupta family’s influence over politics and agendas in South Africa has emerged – this time from the pens of respected and independent academics. 

On Tuesday Brown said she was ready to defend her stance on Molefe to the ANC and announced that she had instituted her own forensic investigation into allegations of corruption at the power utility. A retired judge would head the inquiry and transactions going back 10 years would be probed.

The ANC publicly criticised Brown and the Eskom board of directors after they told parliament that Molefe had not resigned but had been on unpaid leave when he took up the position of ANC MP.

The Eskom board had earlier said Molefe had resigned before changing its tune to say he had retired. Molefe and Eskom's board chairman did not attend yesterday's briefing.

• 'Call the Guptas to Parliament'Exasperated ANC MPs are threatening to call the Gupta family to parliament as they lose patience in investigating the family's influence in procurement deals with state-owned companies. 

Brown was joined by CEOs and board chairmen of key state-owned enterprises under her portfolio such as Transnet, SA Forestry Companies Limited, Alexkor and Denel.

"We invited everyone. I don't know why they are not here," said Brown, adding that her department would enlist the services of a retired judge to oversee a forensic probe into procurement processes at Eskom, dating back to 2007.

Brown said the Special Investigating Unit would conduct forensic work on the seven investigative reports by legal and audit firms.

• Eskom inquiry will cover all contracts from 2007 - including coal procurement contracts in state of capture reportThe inquiry into Eskom's procurement that Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown plans to institute will cover all contracts dating back to 2007 including the coal procurement contracts which were the subject of the state of capture report of former public protector Thuli Madonsela. 

Brown's probe would be parallel to an inquiry that the public enterprises' parliamentary oversight committee decided on Tuesday to conduct.

She said her new probe was not a bureaucratic attempt to delay uncovering "malfeasance at Eskom".

"I'm not doing a doubling up of the state capture investigation; this will be a much broader investigation. I want the whole procurement issue to be investigated. I actually want a credible transparent process. The parliamentary committee must go ahead and do their own investigation."

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