Former Eskom contractor employees arrested in Durban and Mpumalanga

Four former employees of two multinational engineering firms awarded R2.2bn contracts for Eskom power plants in 2015 were arrested by the Investigative Directorate (ID) on Tuesday.

The former employees of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) and Impulse International were arrested in Durban and Emalahleni (Witbank), Mpumalanga by members of the ID, Hawks and SARevenue Service. 

Mohammed Essop Mooidheen and his wife Raeesa were arrested in Emalahleni while Veron Pillay and his wife Aradhna were arrested in Durban. 

They appeared in the Durban and Randburg specialised commercial crimes court facing charges of corruption, money laundering and conspiracy to commit an offence in terms of the prevention and combating of corrupt activities. 

According to the charge sheet Mooidheen and Pillay were employees of ABBZA, a company awarded a R2.2bn control and instrumentation contract for Eskom’s Kusile and Matla power stations in 2015. 

The company subsequently awarded Impulse International R800m in work even though Impulse failed ABB’s tests for a subcontractor.

The charge sheet fingers each of the accused for allegedly benefitting through gratification in the form of large sums of money and high-end vehicles purchased by Pragasen Pather, the sole director of Impulse International and Indiwize Construction, who passed away in June 2021. 

“Accused one and two provided Impulse with an unfair advantage over other subcontractors as Impulse’s rates were inflated and ABBZA procurement policies were not followed in the appointment of Impulse,” the charge sheet reads. 

In 2019 the Sunday Times reported that former Eskom boss Matshela Koko allegedly guaranteed ABB R6.5bn in future contracts if it subcontracted work on the Kusile power station to Impulse International, a company part-owned by his stepdaughter.

Explosive details of how Koko allegedly facilitated the looting of millions from Kusile in cahoots with Swiss-based ABB were exposed in reports provided to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

The company is one of 11 international engineering giants being investigated by the SIU for their roles in the looting of about R139bn to build power stations.

ID spokesperson Sindisiwe Seboka I said Mohammed and Raeesa Mooidheen were granted bail of R50,000 and R30,000 respectively in the Randburg magistrate’s court while Veron and Aradhna Pillay received bail of R20,000 each in the Durban magistrate’s court. 

The case was postponed to October 14 for further investigations.

* The article has been corrected to reflect the arrests were made by the ID and not the SIU as previously reported. 

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