JOHANNESBURG - Future South Africa (FutureSA) along with a variety of civil society organisations handed over a memorandum to McKinsey following a picket outside the company's offices in Sandton.
The picket by FutureSA and the groupings all under one banner was to protest the way in which the global company conducted itself in relation to their empowerment partner Trillian Capital and their business deals with Eskom, FutureSA said in a statement on Thursday.
"McKinsey stands accused of criminal complicity in the capture of the South African state by powerful business interests colluding with prominent political leaders and public sector officials. These allegations – which relate principally to the relationship between McKinsey, Eskom and Trillian – are supported by compelling evidence," FutureSA said.
Groups that supported the picket was United World Karate Federation, Save SA, Section 27, Hollard, Former Public Servants, Greater Mayfair Civic Association, Christian Lawyers/Advocates Africa, Freedom Under Law, Veterans, OUTA, Centre for Strategic Management, NPO Popular Education, Viol, Democracy Works, Democracy Works, JAI, Corruption Watch, BLSA, Treatment Action Campaign, FEDUSA, Right to Know, and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
According to FutureSA, aside from the allegedly corrupt manner in which the company secured their engagement with Eskom, the South African public and the business community is outraged at the depraved fee of R1.6 billion that they have levied for a six-month contract.
"Approximately R600 million of this fee was paid to Trillian despite the fact that they performed little, or no, billable work on the project. Indeed Trillian's sole contribution has, it appears, been confined to using its political connections to secure the contract for McKinsey," FutureSA said.
They said that they are appalled at the inaction of the country's criminal justice authorities and particularly made reference to the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority.
"The evidence clearly points to contraventions of the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act. We demand that they mount a formal investigation of the conduct of McKinsey, Trillian and Eskom. We strongly support Corrupt Watch's planned subbmission to the United States criminal justice authorities requesting that they conduct an investigation into apparent contraventions by McKinsey of the provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
In August, Eskom 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”.
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.