Former Eskom executive Matshela Koko, his wife Mosima and stepdaughter Koketso Choma, were picked up by the Hawks and booked on corruption charges on Thursday morning.
Why were Matshela Koko and family arrested?
As reported by News24, the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) investigating directorate commissioned the arrests after gathering enough evidence to charge the ex-Eskom executive with corruption.
The matter relates to an R2 billion deal Eskom entered into with Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), a Swiss engineering company that won a lucrative tender contract to provide work at Kusile Power Station in 2015.
At the time, Koko was a high-ranking executive at Megawatt Park, and coincidentally, financial records that form part of an ongoing criminal investigation show that the arrested family may have unduly benefitted from the Eskom-ABB deal.
According to investigations, soon after winning the Kusile contract, ABB allegedly passed down some of the work to a company registered as Impulse International, where Koko’s stepdaughter was listed as a shareholder.
It’s said that through a channel of kickbacks, Impulse allegedly received R30 million, from which several large sums of money were channelled to the matriarch, Mosima Koko.
The coincidence of Thursday’s arrest taking place hours before Koko was set to participate in an explosive dialogue titled ‘What Is Really Happening With Eskom‘ and hosted by the Press Club is not lost to political pundits.
Alas, Koko and his family are expected to appear in court soon, where they should be afforded the right to apply for bail.
Neither Koko nor his wife or their legal representative had issued a statement at the time this article was published.
Further, Koko’s name has been plastered all over the State Capture report, and in the recommendations made by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, calls were made to have the former Eskom executive booked for the ABB deal, as well as his alleged culpability in the Gupta-Tegeta saga.
This is a developing story.