Parliament – President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane, will face MPs next month after the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises confirmed on Wednesday that it will call him and the Guptas to give evidence in its investigation into Eskom’s deals with Gupta-owned companies.
Acting chairperson of the committee Zukiswa Rantho said on Wednesday they have written to Duduzane and the Guptas to appear before the inquiry next month.
But she said no firm date has been set for the inquiry because the committee keeps getting more information about the goings-on at Eskom.
In compiling a list of witnesses, the portfolio committee decided to include Duduzane and the Guptas.
Rantho said: “We first wrote to them to tell them that the committee will call them.”
She said a date had not yet been set for the inquiry because of the extra information they keep on receiving about Eskom.
“This information has led to us having to put back the date every time. We will see as time goes on which witnesses we will call on specific dates,” said Rantho.
The committee will give set out the dates once once we have more certainty.
The intention of the committee is to look at Eskom following a decision that was taken in May.
Initially, the committee had wanted to investigate Eskom's decision to reinstate Brian Molefe as Group Chief Executive.
However, the scope was expanded as MPs demanded answers on the coal contracts between Gupta-owned Tegeta and Eskom.
The portfolio committee wanted to get to the bottom of the issues at Eskom, said Rantho.
Eskom was also heavily criticised by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) a few months ago over its coal contracts with the Guptas.
This followed a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that the contract was flawed and no proper processes were followed in drawing up the contract.
Scopa had also asked Eskom about the real value of the contract.
It was said the contract was worth R4 billion over a period of 10 years.
However, some figures put it at R7bn for the same period.
PwC is not the only company that has probed Eskom, as there are six other reports lying around at the power utility on the past investigations.
The Special Investigating Unit has also been roped in by the Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown to probe Eskom.