Johannesburg -
As Eskom put out fires to avert an electricity crisis that could have plunged the country into darkness this week, court papers were being filed to get its executives jailed.
It’s yet another challenge for Eskom’s new chief executive Tshediso Matona, who took over the embattled utility last month and already referred to his “baptism of fire” this week.
Now his team is faced not only with rebuilding key infrastructure at the big baseload Majuba power station, but also with a challenge to major work planned for the Koeberg nuclear power station.
The urgent application was filed on Monday in the High Court in Joburg, and central to it is the multibillion-rand tender for the replacement of steam generators at Koeberg, which Eskom awarded to French company Areva in August.
For R4.3 billion, Areva’s contract is to design, manufacture and install six steam generators at Koeberg’s two reactors in 2018.
But rival bidders Westinghouse Electric SA believes that the tendering process was flawed and irregular, so it has hauled Eskom to court, requesting that all documentation that helped Eskom choose Areva as a competent bidder be availed to it.
A September 5 court order by the High Court in Joburg granted Westinghouse’s request and Eskom had five working days to provide all documentation, such as ballot papers cast on August 12, and audio recordings and transcripts of meetings at which the tender was discussed.
But Eskom has withheld the bulk of the documentation, a move Westinghouse said in court papers was a demonstration of “deviousness and mendacity that defies belief”.
Eskom executives Matshela Koko and Suzanne Daniels should therefore be jailed for 30 days because they are in contempt of Judge Roland Sutherland’s order, Westinghouse said.
Koko is Eskom’s acting executive for technology and commercial, and Daniels a senior manager for technology and commercial.
“Eskom’s failure to comply with the order is disturbing… Eskom says that because Westinghouse has decided not to supplement its founding papers in a review application (launched by Westinghouse), Eskom is released from its obligation to deliver documents in terms of the order.
“This reason is simply nonsense. The order stands independently of the review,” Westinghouse argued in the papers.
An attorney for Eskom, Titus Mchunu, told The Star on Thursday they had “filed notice of opposition, so we are finalising the answering papers”. The papers were due on Friday.
The matter, which has been set down for Wednesday, is separate from an application for the review of the tendering process, which Westinghouse launched in September. That application is expected to be heard by Judge Thokozile Masipa.
Eskom battled an electricity crisis this week following the collapse on Saturday of a coal silo which feeds the boilers at the Majuba power station.
Koko was one of the Eskom team on site at the weekend, assessing what went wrong and how to clean up and get Majuba back on stream.
Majuba lost more than 80 percent of its 3 600MW capacity between Saturday morning and Sunday night. By on Thursday, it was generating 1 900MW with four of its six units running and the hope of a fifth unit being synchronised with the grid today.
Eskom load-shed on Sunday in the immediate aftermath of the silo’s collapse, but has managed to avoid further load shedding since then.
On Thursday night, Eskom expected that it would have power reserves of about 1 800MW - just under 6 percent of the available capacity.
AMONG THE DOCUMENTS WESTINGHOUSE WANTS ESKOM TO SUBMIT ARE:
- All correspondence between Areva and Eskom between July 5, 2014 and August 15, 2014.
- The document prepared by the chief executive dated August 9, 2013 and the management team’s report attached to it
The document and the report were discussed at the board tender committee (BTC) meeting of October 24, 2013.
- Eskom memorandum to AF Consult, dated March 14, 2014.
- Audio recordings and transcripts of the exco and BTC meetings at which the tender was discussed.
- The execution version of the contract between Areva and Eskom.
- The original individual ballot papers completed at the August 12, 2014 BTC meeting.
The Star