JOHANNESBURG - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown on Thursday, extended the 48-hour deadline she gave to Eskom to heed her instruction to clarify its relationship with Trillian, her spokesman said.
"The Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, has asked Eskom's Board to provide her with particular documents relating to its business association with Trillian, and extended the deadline for the tabling of its report on the matter until end of business tomorrow [Friday]," spokesperson Colin Cruywagen said.
"The Minister will seek an urgent opinion on the report from a senior counsel advocateon the contents of the report and advise on particular actions in relation to the report.The Minister will then communicate developments to South Africans."
On Tuesday, Cruywagen said that Brown requested Eskom's board to clarify issues relating to its Trillian relationship, following further revelations of impropriety on Monday.
Eskom on Monday, admitted that it had lied about payments of more than R1.5 billion to Trillian Capital Holdings, a firm linked to the controversial Gupta family, and consultancy firm McKinsey.
The power utility claimed the payments were above board following the release of a damning report into Trillian by advocate Geoff Budlender.
It said fellow global management consultancy, Oliver Wyman, had concluded that the payments were "based on prudent costs incurred and value created".
But on Monday, Eskom was forced to concede that in fact Wyman had red-flagged the payments and recommended a legal review of the transactions.
Budlender was appointed by the former chairman of Trillian, Tokyo Sexwale, to investigate the company's role in state capture. In his report, which was released in June, he found that Eskom paid Trillian R266 million for services without contracts in 2016.
Eskom said it was correcting a "factual inaccuracy" following a complaint in this regard from Wyman.
Trillian is a financial services company in which Salim Essa, a close business associate of the Guptas, sold his controlling share in June as pressure over allegations of state capture mounted.