Officials at the ANC's investment arm Chancellor House were tight-lipped on Monday after the ruling party's announcement that it would divest its shares in Hitachi Power Africa.
The lack of comment came amidst allegations that the ANC would nevertheless make a killing from its subcontract in Eskom's new Medupi power plant in Limpopo.
Neither Chancellor House trustee Popo Molefe nor the company's managing director, Mamatho Netshianda, would comment on the disinvestment process.
Neither they, nor ANC Treasurer-General Mathews Phosa, were willing to respond to questions about whether Chancellor House had more contracts with state entities such as Eskom, or what kind of profit would be made on the sale of its 25 percent stake in Hitachi Power Africa.
Hitachi won a R38.5 billion tender to provide boilers to the Medupi and Kusile power stations.
Phosa announced this weekend that the ANC had instructed Chancellor House two weeks ago to disinvest from Hitachi, amidst a political storm over the conflict of interests this posed.
Pressure on the ANC from opposition parties intensified in the run-up to the World Bank deciding on Thursday last week to grant South Africa a $3.75 billion (R27.1 billion) loan to help finance Medupi.
Opposition parties remained sceptical about Phosa's statement that the shares would be sold within six weeks, while the DA called on Phosa to go further by declaring how much the ANC had profited from the deal.
(T)hese developments - both the admission of a serious conflict of interest and the decision to disinvest - have come far too late in the process, and fail on their own to mitigate the real problem, which is that the ANC's involvement in this deal has essentially seen state funds transferred from the fiscus into the bank accounts of the ANC, DA MP Seth Motau said.
Motau said the ANC had already made a killing, because the value of the Hitachi shares would have risen exponentially since the deal was concluded in 2007, and particularly since the World Bank loan was granted last week.
Phosa on Monday would not expand on his remarks over the weekend.
Molefe, one of two Chancellor House trustees, said he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the company and could therefore not confirm reports that he would personally kick-start start the process of disinvesting from Hitachi.
I have no right to deal with those issues that you say I must deal with. I am not authorized by the company to talk about what they may or may not do, said the former North West premier-turned-businessman.
I don't run the company it operates according to the rules in terms of the Companies Act and then a decision will be taken by the board of directors.
Netshianda also refused to speak to Independent Newspapers, for the second time in a month, saying: No, no, no. I don't want to speak to the media, before putting the phone down.
Other Chancellor House directors include Taolo Mokoena, who also chairs the board; Henry Makgothi, a treason trialist and former MP and director-general of the Public Enterprises department and Edith Kuzwayo, who previously served as a legal advisor to the Defence Secretariat.
ANC veteran, Hermanus Loots - also known as James Stuart, his nom du guerre as an Umkontho we Sizwe member; former Robben Island prisoner and now a businessman, Norbert Buthelezi, and businesswomen Tebogo Makgatho and Sibongile Masinga were appointed as directors last year.
Phosa told Independent Newspapers on Sunday the DA and ID had savaged the ANC unfairly as they lobbied publicly for the World Bank to make the loan conditional on the ANC's withdrawal from Hitachi.
But Phosa denied that the ANC's decision to sell off Chancellor House's stake had anything to do with the World Bank loan.
Phosa also disclosed that the ANC last week held a meeting of 45 regional treasurers in Johannesburg to debate party funding protocols ahead of a formal discussion at its National General Council in September.