South African power utility firm Eskom has denied that a mine linked to the Gupta family has been awarded a contract to supply coal for the Arnot power plant.
According to reports on Friday, state-owned Eskom was buying coal for its Arnot power plant from a mine that’s being bought by a company controlled by the Gupta family. The latter is said to be linked to President Jacob Zuma after a 40-year contract with Exxaro Resources was cancelled.
Optimum Coal, which is alleged to have been acquired by a company controlled by the Gupta family, has been supplying coal to Arnot since the beginning of the year.
Matshela Koko, Eskom’s Group Executive for Generation, however condemned the allegations that the contract had already been issued and termed them false and mischievous.
He reiterated that Eskom had made a statement that the process would be completed in March 2016 and had full intentions of meeting this deadline.
Owing to excessive coal price, as well as the mine supplying below the contractual requirement, Eskom did not renew the contract they had signed with Exxaro to supply Arnot from a nearby mine by the end of December.
“To ensure business continuity of Arnot, Eskom had its coal sourced from seven interim suppliers, one of them being Optimum, which had provided less than 15% of the coal delivered to Arnot in January.
“All interim suppliers deliver coal significantly below the previous Exxaro price – further demonstrating the correctness of Eskom’s decision to seek a new supplier,” Koko said.
He added that the accusations linking the purchase of coal from Optimum to a change of ownership was indeed alarming and disappointing.
Koko said Eskom is unapologetic about engaging with any supplier, irrespective of ownership and as such, the power utility will execute its mandate and assess suppliers only on their ability to provide coal on negotiated terms and conditions, irrespective of any perceived political connections.
