Eskom board recommended legal chief be suspended

Eskom board chairman Zethembe Khoza has confirmed that the utility’s head of legal services‚ Suzanne Daniels‚ was suspended this week for among other allegations‚ spending R50‚000 on a team-building exercise.

After initially saying he had only been informed Daniels was suspended‚ Khoza then said the board had recommended to Eskom chief executive Johnny Dladla that “corrective action” be taken against Daniels after the allegations were discussed at a board meeting.

Daniels told EWN she was handed a suspension letter that cited the outing‚ which she is accused of spending funds on irregularly‚ as well as “destroying crucial documents” and “not adhering to instructions to respond to parliamentary questions”.

Daniels compiled a report implicating senior managers in the Trillian/McKinsey saga‚ which cost the state-owned power utility more than R1.6-billion.

Trillian‚ which until July was majority owned by close Gupta associate Salim Essa‚ was paid R495-million without a contract being in place.

The Eskom executive and board have been criticised for dragging their feet in dealing with the Trillian matter decisively.

Sources with intimate knowledge of the matter told TimesLIVE on Friday that Daniels was suspended after Khoza “put pressure” on Dladla.

“No‚ I think she is suspended on the basis of the investigation that has been done‚” Khoza said on Friday.

“She is suspended on a number of charges but the chief executive is the one who knows the most on what lies in the charges. I was only informed that she was suspended‚” Khoza said.

“One of the issues that were brought to the board‚ it was the say of the chief executive to take corrective action.”

“It’s one of the issues that was raised [at a board meeting]‚ the 50‚000 that was spent‚” Khoza said‚ adding that it was contained in a “report that we saw.”

When pushed‚ he then confirmed the board had recommended corrective action be taken against Daniels.