CAPE TOWN - Mark Pamensky, the former Eskom board member has finally responded, after OUTA laid charges of corruption against him.
Pamensky, who was also a board member in the Gupta owned Oakbay Resources, was accused of abusing his authority and position at Eskom.
The Chief operating officer of Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), Ben Theron, said that the charges were in direct relation to Pamensky’s management while he was at Eskom and Pamensky’s links to the Gupta energy company.
File image: IOL
Permensky, in an interview with Fin24, said that information from the #Guptaleaks emails did not support the charges and allegation brought forward by OUTA against him. In other words, he challenged the context of the emails.
“In just one example of this, OUTA refer to an email sent by me on 18 September 2015, which they claim is evidence of me sharing ‘privileged’ information regarding Eskom.
“In reality, the email referred to by OUTA (which was attached to their affidavit, albeit in an incomplete state) quite simply demonstrates the sharing of noteworthy Business Day and Finweek articles describing, amongst other things, recent merger and acquisition activity in the domestic coal market. I have, for completeness sake, attached the full email and its attachments to this response.”
In a previous article OUTA said that Pamensky’s emails to the Guptas were inspected.
His emails, of which are attached to the affidavit, show his eagerness for the Gupta group's purchase of Optimum Coal Holdings, which received substantial assistance from Eskom.
While a director of both Oakbay and Eskom in September 2015, Pamensky emailed five individuals, two of whom belong to the Gupta family: Atul Gupta and Varun Gupta (director of Shiva Uranium).
His emails provided the recipients with Eskom’s new procurement methods for coal.
Pamensky's further communication with the Gupta's are recorded on various occasions during 2015.
On 17 November 2015, Pamensky wrote to Atul Gupta and Tony Gupta about Oakbay’s “potential acquisition of Tegeta which has a contract with Eskom. I sit on the Eskom board and this can be perceived to be a conflict”.
BREAKING: We laid charges of corruption + abuse of his position against former Eskom director Mark Pamensky https://t.co/xem7PJT5oD pic.twitter.com/2JKR1ODohc
— OUTA (@OUTASA) August 15, 2017