Eskom sneaks Corruption House another plum
Nothing like a national crisis to expedite quiet crony deals on the side, is there?
Not long after a R20 billion power station contract for the planned Medupi plant in Limpopo was awarded to Hitachi, 15% of which would end up in the slush fund of Chancellor House, a company that exists solely to fund the ruling party, the Mail&Guardian reported on Thursday that another huge deal went the way of the ANC cronies.
This week it emerged that Eskom subsequently awarded the Hitachi consortium a similar contract, this time for “Project Bravo”, a second new coal-fired station. Bravo will be built near Eskom’s existing Kendal power station in Mpumalanga.
The Bravo contract was awarded without a further tender process. Earlier, Eskom justified its intended departure from standard procurement rules on grounds, among others, that it would save time.
Eskom has made no announcement about the Bravo contract, but construction giant Murray & Roberts let the cat out of the bag in a JSE regulatory announcement on Monday, saying it had “secured the construction contract to Hitachi for both the Medupi and Bravo boiler contracts”. Murray & Roberts is the Hitachi consortium’s construction subcontractor.
On Thursday a member of the Hitachi consortium, who asked not to be named, confirmed that Eskom and Hitachi had already signed the Bravo contract on December 14. The member said the contract was worth about R18,5-billion, slightly less than the Medupi contract but with similar arrangements.
Neat, guys. We’re proud of you. With all the raised eyebrows and corruption allegations, you never batted an eyelid. With supreme disdain you forwent even a token tender to hide your shame, but simply forged ahead with another fetid feat of, frankly, theft. Bravo, bravo.
Perhaps Naomi Klein should come visit South Africa (did you know we have splendid weather?) to take some lessons in “disaster cronyism”. See how it really works, and who really exploits whom.
Wow Ivo, well said.
Clearly, there is a new strategy: Don’t try to conceal any misconduct(don’t you just love the PC terms floating about these days). Daub it with some semantics of respectability. Then flaunt it. Shove it into the open. Rub our faces in it. If the practice isn’t immediately and forcefully (hysterically!) challenged, who can then later label that particular financial atrocity as corrupt? I fear that the plundering is about to ratchet up another few notches ….
[…] to injury, reports have started to emerge about front companies of the ruling party, the ANC, profiteering off the energy crisis through lucrative contracts to build new power stations and related […]